Bless me Father for I have sinned.
A Louisiana woman was found guilty of attempted murder after her confession to her pastor was used during her trial, the woman’s attorney said — but a local judge wasn’t buying it.
Peggy Valentine, 44, was convicted by a jury on Monday of attempted first-degree home invasion (Battery) stemming from a May 2022 incident in which she was found to have broken into her fiance’s other girlfriend’s home and stabbed her during a fight.
Valentine’s lawyer claims he was visiting another woman on good terms, who recently gave birth to a child with Valentine’s fiancé.
“When he found out about the baby, he went to the house with a relative and brought the baby some clothes,” attorney David Belfield III said, according to WAFB. “In his mind, they’re still trying to work out the relationship.”
Prosecutors argued that Valentine had broken into the home and attacked the woman while she was sleeping in bed, according to WAFB, but her attorney denied that theory.
“There was no sign of forced entry, broken doors, broken windows. Someone had to open the door,” Belfield III said according to WAFB.
After the fight broke out, Valentine called his pastor, a Major with the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office, who said he should talk to investigators.
Peggy Valentine was convicted by a jury on Monday of attempted first-degree home invasion (Battery) stemming from a May 2022 incident in Louisiana. Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office
Valentine voluntarily spoke to deputies because he felt he was only defending himself, Belfield said, but asked to speak with the priest when he felt he was being questioned.
“Obviously they’ve been interrogating Peggy for a while. He was very, very upset at the time. He stopped talking to her, shut down and demanded to speak to his pastor,” Belfield said.
Valentine opened up to her pastor while a sheriff’s deputy remained in the room, allegedly admitting she went to the house to arrest her fiancé with another woman.
Belfield argued to the judge that Valentine’s conversation with the priest should be expunged from the record because of “pastoral privilege,” adding he never explained to Valentine that he was acting as a law enforcement officer and not a religious leader.
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“Do you work as a priest or deputy? He never told her, ‘Peggy, you have to be careful what you say because I work as a police officer. What you say will be used against you,’” Belfield said.
He then argued that other deputies should not have been in the room during the conversation.
“You wouldn’t sit in a room while he talks to his lawyer, so why are you sitting in a room talking to his pastor?”
Belfield also argues that there are three components to determining the pastor’s privilege defined under “clergy privilege” in US courts.
“The communication must be made either as an official act of religion or as a matter of conscience; (2) it must be made to a priest in his capacity as spiritual adviser or to his assistant in his official capacity; and (3) communication must be intended to be confidential)”
The judge ruled that because another deputy was in the room, the conversation could not be classified as confidential, and then allowed the jury to hear the confession multiple times.
“In first degree murder you have to prove specific intent. He went there to check if his man was there. There was no specific intent to kill,” argued Belfield. “If you can’t trust your pastor in this day and age, who can you trust?”
Valentine is being held in the Ascension Parish Jail pending a pre-sentence hearing on Dec. 30 and will be sentenced on Feb. 2024.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
