February 23, 2011

• Steven Topazio wrote this April 27, 2014 at 11:53 am

The client in this case was the wife to a defendant who was summoned to appear before the grand jury in relation to charges against her husband, hired Attorney Topazio to represent her. The wife wanted to invoke her spousal privilege under Mass. Gen. Laws ch 233, § 20 not to testify. Attorney Topazio pointed out that the statutory spousal privilege applied only to testimony in the trial of a criminal proceeding against the witness’s spouse and that grand jury proceedings were not trials. Attorney Topazio investigated the situation and discovered that the wife also had a Fifth Amendment right not to testify. The wife appeared with Attorney Topazio who refused to allow his client to testify based on the Fifth Amendment and spousal privilege. The judge who heard argument took the case under advisement. Today, the court ruled that according to the case of IN THE MATTER OF A GRAND JURY SUBPOENA, 447 Mass. 88; 849 N.E. 2d 797 (2006) the wife could not invoke her spousal privilege at the grand jury but agreed with Attorney Topazio and found she had a valid Fifth Amendment right not to testify.