Overbroad Subpoena of Child Sex Abuse Victim's Family Documents Quashed

A Columbia County Circuit Court judge has quashed most of a criminal defense attorney's trial subpoena of documents from the mother of a child sex-abuse victim.

The judge ruled that the defense may subpoena only three of 27 categories of documents from a list that ran three and one-half, single-spaced pages. 

A pro bono attorney for the Center had challenged the subpoena on the grounds that it was overbroad and that the defendant had no statutory or constitutional authority to obtain all, or most, of the documents sought. The subpoena covered everything from records relating to the mother's other five children, none of whom are named in the indictment, to her family's correspondence with male felons. 

"The Court's first impression of that subpoena duces tecum is overbroad, a fact that counsel for the Defendant essentially admitted at argument on the motion to quash," Judge Steven B. Reed said in a written opinion dated Nov. 8.

Reed went on to address all 27 categories of documents individually, using such phrases as "fishing expedition" and "hugely overbroad." 

The defendant is charged with committing 47 felony sexual crimes against the victim - his daughter - in 2010.