Rosenberg v. Helinski

MURPHY, Chief Judge.

We granted certiorari in this defamation action to consider whether a psychologist, whose expert in-court testimony in a child custody matter supported the wife’s accusation that her husband had sexually abused their child, is privileged to reiterate the substance of his testimony to journalists waiting for him outside on the courthouse steps.

I

This case implicates the volatile mix of a father’s personal reputation, the specter of child sexual abuse, the ubiquitous eye of television, the limits of free speech, and the privileged status accorded to reports of events in…