A federal judge in Illinois is allowing a woman, who claims she was wrongfully convicted of the murder of an infant, to review her mental health records for privilege before turning them over to the investigators accused of her malicious prosecution.
On Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Keri L. Holleb Hotaling of the Northern District of Illinois granted Jennifer Del Prete’s motion to enter a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and mental health protective order to cover any potentially privileged mental health documents. Del Prete, who brings claims alleging severe emotional distress, claimed she was entitled to review the documents before they were disclosed to the defendants to determine their contents. However, the parties disagreed on whether Del Prete was entitled to conduct a privileged review of the documents under the psychotherapist privilege before disclosing them to the defendants.