Left: Alexee Trevizo (Artesia Police Department); Right: Police body-worn camera footage of Trevizo in the hospital after giving birth (Law&Crime).
Prosecutors in New Mexico cannot use any emergency room statements made by a woman accused of murdering her newborn by disposing of the baby in a hospital bathroom, the Land of Enchantment's highest court ruled on Thursday.
In a unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court of New Mexico affirmed a trial court ruling that suppressed evidence obtained by law enforcement that the court found to be in violation of the physician-patient privilege.
The case against Alexee Trevizo, 22, was brought when she was 19 years old in May 2023 over the birth and death of the baby in January of that year.
Since her arrest, the defendant has appeared in court exactly once — in August 2023. During that appearance, her defense attorney, Gary C. Mitchell, successfully argued for the suppression remedy.
Since then, the case stalled out as prosecutors sought an interlocutory appeal in a now-failed effort to reinstate evidence.
The state supreme court affirmed an earlier ruling by the Eddy County District Court that Trevizo did not voluntarily waive her confidentiality — which is protected by the physician-patient privilege — when she spoke to a doctor in the presence of police and her mother.
"Under all the circumstances, giving birth alone in the locked bathroom was surely shocking, frightening, and stressful to Defendant," the opinion reads. "This was Defendant's condition when Defendant's doctor, the charge nurse, and two armed, uniformed police officers confronted her at 2:41 a.m. We would ordinarily remand for an evidentiary hearing on this question of capacity to waive. However, we do not do so here because the facts unequivocally demonstrate that due to Defendant's medical condition, she lacked capacity to waive her physician-patient privilege."
The opinion spends substantial time recounting how hospital staffers were aware of the pregnancy, based on several different tests, but did not reveal that news to Trevizo until well after the grim discovery.
When law enforcement was called, the charge nurse alleged that Trevizo "wouldn't tell us she was pregnant" and "killed the kid."
The state argued Trevizo waived her rights because her mother and police were present when the attending physician finally mentioned the dead newborn. The court, however, rejected that argument because the doctor himself had invited police into Trevizo's room.
"The State's argument urges us to adopt a per se rule that whenever a third person is present who is not necessary for care or treatment while a patient communicates with their doctor, a waiver of confidentiality takes place, regardless of who the person is or of the circumstances," the opinion goes on. "We reject that argument as inconsistent with caselaw and the policy interests underlying the physician-patient privilege."
The justices stressed that one mandatory requirement for a waiver of the privilege is "the mental and physical capacity" and that in the case, Trevizo lacked such capacity due to her medical condition.
The court heavily criticized how the doctor handled the situation:
Defendant presented at the emergency room in excruciating pain, was administered numerous medications, including narcotics, at unknown doses, she gave birth, and she suffered ongoing life-threatening blood loss. Despite her unresolved medical crisis, Dr. Vaskas, without authorization, ambushed Defendant, bringing with her two-armed officers who stood in the doorway of her hospital room, and disclosed her personal medical information to all persons in the room without warning.
"Defendant was not given the opportunity to exclude anyone from the room before Dr. Vaskas discussed her condition in the presence of others," the opinion concludes. "Considering this sudden unauthorized disclosure, coupled with Defendant's compromised medical condition, under the totality of the circumstances, we cannot conclude that Defendant's waiver of her physician-patient privilege was voluntary."