Only threats against specific people require reporting, according to laws, ethics rules

By Karen Abbott
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

If Eric Harris ever told his therapist he wanted to kill specific people, his doctor had a duty to report it to protect their lives.

But psychologist Kevin Albert, who treated Harris before the 18-year-old's deadly rampage at Columbine High School, had no duty to tell anyone if Harris confided that he wanted to kill everybody at his school, lawyers and psychologists said Tuesday.

Harris and classmate Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and wounded more than 20 others before taking their own lives April 20, 1999.

Law enforcement authorities have said the two gunmen intended to destroy the school and kill everyone in it and that they apparently fired on students and faculty at random.

"If there is any information forthcoming from any patient, having to do with a threat to another, then there is no confidentiality — you must warn the intended victim," said Denver psychologist Jeff Dolgan, who heads the state Board of Examiners that licenses psychologists.

"But not if the patient says, 'I'm going to get those people at school,"' Dolgan said.

He said a patient must name "a specific intended victim — such as 'I want to kill my mother,"' to trigger a therapist's duty to report the threat.

No one knows what Harris told Albert. The 47-year-old psychologist practices in Littleton and has a doctorate in psychology from the University of Denver. According to federal court documents, Albert has refused to give Harris' parents the treatment records.

Albert has not returned telephone calls from the Denver Rocky Mountain News.

Albert's treatment of Harris became an issue recently in lawsuits filed over the killings. Sixteen families of those who died or were injured have filed suits, naming more than three dozen defendants so far. The defendants include government agencies, teachers and the parents and friends of the two young gunmen, among others.

A judge may have to review Albert's treatment records privately to determine whether they should become evidence in the lawsuits, according to Christopher Mueller, a University of Colorado law professor and expert on evidence and court procedures.

Albert likely wasn't the only therapist who treated Harris, but he is the only one publicly named. Harris was known to be taking a prescription medication used to treat depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychologists, such as Albert, are not medical doctors and cannot prescribe medications.

Therapists often resist disclosing anything about their clients or their treatment, in court or even to a young patient's parents. One reason is that disclosing the information might hurt the patient, the parents or others involved in the patient's life, according to psychologist Lisa Kaley-Isley, who heads the legislative committee of the Colorado Psychological Association.

Also, she said, successful therapy depends on a patient being able to trust the therapist.

"It is creating that safe environment which is what enables people to be able to talk," she said.

However, she said, psychologists usually tell patients in their first session that there are exceptions to that confidentiality. Among other things, therapists must report child abuse, must take action if a patient is too gravely disabled to care for himself or herself and may be ordered by a judge to testify or turn over records, she said.

Mueller said the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that therapists may not be compelled to disclose things about their patients, unless certain exceptions apply such as the duty to warn others of threats.

The Harris case is complicated by the fact that Eric Harris turned 18 shortly before the shootings. Absent a specific threat, no one generally has the right to know what goes on in an adult's therapy, according to Rick Stewart, president of the Colorado Psychological Association.

But Stewart said the law isn't black and white. Even a threat that doesn't include specifically identified individuals might require a therapist to report it in some situations, he said.

He told of a Colorado case in which a patient told his therapist, "I want to kill cops," and then killed a police officer who showed up at a convenience store where the patient was acting strangely.

Stewart said the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the question of whether the therapist had to report the man's statement should be answered in a trial, but the case was settled.

Another issue in the Harris case is whether he still has the right to confidentiality with his therapist even though he has died.

Mueller said the right to confidentiality continues after death, and that Harris' therapist is ethically obliged to fight to protect it.

"The privilege doesn't end with death," Mueller said. "And a patient cannot waive it by committing murders."

Contact Karen Abbott at (303) 892-5188 or abbottk@RockyMountainNews.com.