In Re Inquest Proceedings

Appellants, parents of a twenty-five-year-old son, appeal from an order of the Chittenden District Court that denied their motion to quash an inquest subpoena and held them in civil contempt for failing to testify at an inquest proceeding. Appellants assert a testimonial parent-child privilege with respect to any incriminating communications imparted to them in confidence by their son and to their own observations of any incriminating conduct of their son. We affirm.

Vermont has not recognized a parent-child privilege either at common law or in our rules of evidence. Indeed, the majority of…