Monnat & Spurrier | Monnat & Spurrier Attorneys at Law

Dec 04, 2007
Associated Press
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by Carl Manning

TOPEKA, Kan. – A Sedgwick County grand jury will be convened Jan. 8 to investigate George Tiller, one of the nation’s few physicians who performs late-term abortions, the county announced Monday.

The process begins with selection of 15 people from a pool of more than 70 summoned for duty. It will take 12 members to approve any recommendation the panel might make. The grand jury can meet for up to 90 days, although that can be extended by the district court.

Last week, the Kansas Supreme Court dismissed a petition from the Wichita physician seeking to stop the grand jury.

The grand jury had been scheduled to convene Oct. 30. But the court put it on hold so that it could review Tiller’s petition challenging the legality of the proceedings.

The grand jury was initiated by a citizen petition drive led by abortion foes. Kansas is one of six states that permits citizens to petition to create a grand jury.

“We feel it is a completely politically motivated and completely unnecessary expenditure of taxpayer dollars,” Tiller’s attorneys, Dan Monnat and Lee Thompson, said in a written statement Monday.

Abortion foes contend Tiller has violated a 1998 state law restricting late-term abortions and that potential violations have been ignored for years. Tiller’s attorneys have said repeatedly that he has done nothing wrong.

This will be the second grand jury abortion foes have created through petition drives in 18 months to investigate Tiller. Last year, a grand jury reviewed the deaths of a Texas woman who had an abortion at Tiller’s clinic but issued no indictments.

In June, Attorney General Paul Morrison filed 19 misdemeanor charges against Tiller, alleging he failed to get a second opinion on some late-term abortions from an independent second physician, as required by law.

By CARL MANNING
Associated Press Writer

Nov 30, 2007
Associated Press
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by Carl Manning

TOPEKA, Kan. – The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that a Sedgwick County grand jury investigation into a doctor who performs late-term abortions can go forward.

The ruling, issued Thursday, dismissed a petition filed last month by Dr. George Tiller, one of the nation’s few physicians who performs late-term abortions. He challenged the legality of the grand jury proceedings.

The grand jury investigation in Wichita, like one started in Johnson County looking into Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, was created by a citizen petition drive led by abortion foes.

Kansas is one of only six states that permits citizens to petition to create a grand jury.

Abortion foes hailed the ruling. Tiller’s attorneys, Lee Thompson and Dan Monnat, said in a statement issued Thursday that the petition drive was politically motivated.

“It’s been repeatedly determined that Dr. Tiller is innocent of any wrongdoing and we just regret that taxpayers’ dollars are now going to have to be spent to enable this grand jury to move forward,” they said.

A Johnson County district judge on Tuesday denied Planned Parenthood’s request to block the start of the panel, and the organization had planned to appeal. But Planned Parenthood attorney Bob Eye said Friday that the clinic would not appeal, saying the ruling issued in the Tiller case would likely apply to its case.

“We respect the court’s decision. We think the similarities would have resulted in the same decision, and we aren’t here to waste the court’s time,” Eye said.

Impaneling a 15-member grand jury in the Planned Parenthood case will begin Dec. 10 and it can meet for up to 90 days, although that can be extended by the district court. It takes 12 grand jurors to issue a recommendation.

Chief Judge Michael Corrigan in Sedgwick County said he didn’t know when the grand jury there will begin its work.

Operation Rescue President Troy Newman called Planned Parenthood’s decision another victory on top of the Supreme Court decision.

“We are celebrating these victories today and are looking forward to seeing justice done, both in Sedgwick and Johnson counties, through the grand jury process. We finally have some hope that the system is beginning to function as it should,” Newman said in a statement.

Abortion opponents want the grand jury to look into whether Planned Parenthood’s Overland Park clinic provided illegal late-term abortions. Eye said no late-term abortions are done at the clinic and Planned Parenthood is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Planned Parenthood already faces a 107-count criminal complaint filed by Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline in October. The complaint includes 29 misdemeanor counts of providing unlawful late-term abortions.

Kline, an anti-abortion Republican, started investigating Planned Parenthood in 2003 when he was attorney general. After a court battle, he eventually gained access to some of the clinic’s patient medical records.

Paul Morrison, an abortion-rights Democrat who defeated Kline last year to become attorney general, reviewed the records Kline obtained and found no wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood.

However, Morrison filed 19 misdemeanor charges against Tiller in June, alleging Tiller failed to get a second opinion on some late-term abortions from an independent second physician, as required by law.

By CARL MANNING
Associated Press Writer

Nov 29, 2007
Associated Press
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by Carl Manning

TOPEKA, Kan. – The state’s highest court says a Sedgwick County grand jury created by a citizen petition drive led by abortion foes can proceed with its investigation of Dr. George Tiller, one of the few physicians in the nation who performs late-term abortions.

The order issued Thursday allowing the grand jury to move forward also dismissed a petition filed last month by the Wichita physician challenging the legality of the grand jury proceedings. At that time, the court put the grand jury on hold until it could review the case.

“The petition should be and is herby denied, and the case is dismissed. Accordingly, the stay of the grand jury proceedings is lifted and the motions to intervene are dismissed as moot,” Chief Justice Kay McFarland wrote for the court.

Anti-abortion groups were part of a drive to collect enough signatures to force a grand jury investigation. Kansas is one of six states where residents can petition for a grand jury.

They used the same tactics to create a grand jury in Johnson County to investigate Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri which operates a clinic in Overland Park.

On Tuesday, a district judge rejected Planned Parenthood’s motion to stop that investigation but agreed to move back the date for convening the panel by a week to Dec. 10. Planned Parenthood said it would appeal.

As expected, Tiller’s attorneys, Lee Thompson and Dan Monnat, were unhappy with the ruling while abortion foes called it a triumph.

“We’re disappointed that today the Supreme Court didn’t put a halt to what is clearly a politically motivated grand jury,” the attorneys said in a statement. “It’s been repeatedly determined that Dr. Tiller is innocent of any wrongdoing and we just regret that taxpayers’ dollars are now going to have to be spent to enable this grand jury to move forward.”

Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansas for Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion organization, called it a “great ruling.”

“Too often in this world, the law changes when the issue is abortion and I’m gratified that didn’t happen in this case and the justices were true to the law and the people of Kansas,” she said.

Operation Rescue president Troy Newman called the ruling “a pleasant surprise,” adding, “Victories in the pro-life movement are precious and few and we will take every one we can get.”

The grand jury Tiller wanted to block is the second one abortion foes have forced the county to create in 18 months to investigate him. Last year, a grand jury reviewed the deaths of a Texas woman who had an abortion at Tiller’s clinic but issued no indictments.

Impaneling the grand jury had been scheduled to start Oct. 30 when the justices halted the proceedings.

Chief District Judge Michael Corrigan in Sedgwick County said he will set another date for impaneling a grand jury but he didn’t know when that would be.

He said some 70 people will be summoned and 15 will be sworn in. The panel can meet for up to 90 days, although that can be extended by the court. It takes 12 grand jurors to issue a recommendation.

Abortion foes say Tiller has violated a 1998 law restricting late-term abortions and that potential violations have been ignored for years. His attorneys have said repeatedly the allegations are unfounded and that he has been cleared in previous state investigations.

In June, Attorney General Paul Morrison filed 19 misdemeanor charges against, alleging he failed to get a second opinion on some late-term abortions from an independent second physician, as required by law.

But many abortion opponents believe Morrison, an abortion-rights Democrat, should have focused on allegations that Tiller violated restrictions designed to limit late-term abortions to medical emergencies.

The case is George R. Tiller, M.D., v. Honorable Michael Corrigan, presiding judge, Paul Buchanan, assigned senior judge, No. 99,434.

By CARL MANNING
Associated Press Writer

Nov 10, 2007
Associated Press

GODDARD, Kan. – A group of Republican legislators says the Kansas Supreme Court overstepped its authority when it put on hold a grand jury investigation into a Wichita doctor who is one of the nation’s few late-term abortion providers.

At a news conference at a Lake Afton lodge on Friday, the 17 legislators said the Supreme Court should allow Sedgwick County to move forward with empaneling a grand jury to investigate Dr. George Tiller.

The grand jury was initiated by anti-abortion groups that circulated citizen petitions. Kansas is one of the few states that allow citizens to petition to empanel a grand jury.

The court last month put the grand jury on hold in response to a petition filed Tiller. In the order, Chief Justice Kay McFarland said that it was issued “by virtue of the unique circumstances of this case and to allow full consideration of the petition.”

Tiller’s lawyer, Dan Monnat, said that politics, not the law, is the driving force against Tiller. He said the lawmakers at Friday’s conference “get re-elected by fomenting opposition to a woman’s right to choose.”

“I seriously doubt the court will be bullied by these politicians into acting more quickly or acting at all,” he said.

The Associated Press

Nov 02, 2007
by Ron Sylvester

A Sedgwick County District Court judge heard arguments, but did not rule, on whether the prosecution of a Wichita abortion provider is constitutional.

A lawyer for Wichita abortion provider George Tiller began presented arguments this afternoon, asking a Judge Clark Owens to dismiss the misdemeanor criminal charges against the doctor.

The state has charged Tiller with using a doctor who wasn’t sufficiently independent to handle referrals for late-term abortions performed in his clinic.

Lee Thompson told Owens that the Kansas law requiring doctors to get another referral before performing late-term abortions puts an “undue burden” on women, violating the U.S. Constitution.

Kansas law requires doctors such as Tiller to get referrals from other doctors within the state in order to perform abortions late in a woman’s pregnancy.

Thompson said Tiller gets referrals from doctors all over the nation, sending patients to get abortions because of dangers to their health .

“You can have a referral from the world’s foremost expert, but when you come to Kansas, it doesn’t count,” if the referring doctor is out of state, Thompson said.

“This law puts a whole Byzantine set of hurdles, which serve no logical purpose except to keep a woman from exercising her constitutional right to seek an abortion,” Thompson said.

Thompson said the doctor who provided the referrals worked out of Tiller’s office only for security reasons brought on by threats from abortion opponents.

Jared Maag, an assistant Kansas attorney general, said that if the law limited a woman’s right to obtain an abortion, then Tiller couldn’t operate.

“The number of abortions done belie his arguments,” Maag said.

“He performs thousands,” Maag added, referring to Tiller.

Maag said the question is simple: Did Tiller have an illegal association with a doctor who gave concurring medical opinions on the health status of women receiving late-term abortions in Wichita?

“We have evidence of that,” Maag said. “And that’s something a jury should decide.”

Through his lawyers, Tiller also asked Judge Owens to allow him to have a panel of 12 jurors. Usually jury trials in misdemeanor cases get a panel of six.

In the second part of the hearing, Dan Monnat argued on Tiller’s behalf that a Kansas law dictating that misdemeanor defendants receive only six jurors defies the state’s constitution.

Monnat said the state’s Supreme Court has said that Kansas adopted its bill of rights from Ohio’s constitution in 1859. But Ohio’s high court had ruled six years earlier that all criminal defense must have a jury of 12.

Arguments by the state that the U.S. Supreme Court had already approved six-member juries for misdemeanors, “isn’t comparing apples and oranges, but rather colonists and cowboys,” Monnat said.

“We don’t care what the framers of the U.S. Constitution meant,” Monnat said. “What we’re concerned with is what the framers of the Kansas constitution meant.

“You can also say we’re comparing Buckeyes and Jayhawks,” Monnat said.

Maag, however, argued that Kansas did pattern its bill of rights after the U.S. Constitution. Maag also pointed out that the Ohio case of 1853 has been overruled by that state’s Supreme Court.

“So Ohio does not have to be bound by that case, but Kansas does?” Maag said.

Maag said that even looking to common law history doesn’t point to any specific numbers for the “right to trial by jury.”

“It’s not set in stone; it never has been,” Maag said. “It’s up to the states to decide, and we have a law that does that.”

Judge Owens said he expected to take several weeks to rule on the constitutionality issue.

By RON SYLVESTER

Oct 27, 2007
by Hurst Laviana

The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday blocked plans to seat a grand jury next week to investigate the activities of Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.

“We will not start a grand jury on Tuesday as scheduled,” Sedgwick County Chief Judge Michael Corrigan said.

Corrigan said the Supreme Court granted an indefinite stay in the proceedings so it can consider a variety of legal issues raised in a legal petition filed by Tiller’s attorneys.

The order by Chief Justice Kay McFarland said it was issued “by virtue of the unique circumstances of this case and to allow full consideration of the petition.”

Anti-abortion groups forced Sedgwick County to call a grand jury to investigate Tiller by collecting nearly 7,900 signatures on a petition accusing him of violating a 1998 law that restricts late-term abortions.

Tiller’s attorneys repeatedly have denied the allegations. In their petition to the Supreme Court, the attorneys argued:

• That the grounds for the grand jury petition were derived from the illegal distribution of women’s health care records.

• That the attempted empanelment of the grand jury constitutes a bad-faith harassment of Tiller by political groups that are opposed to abortions.

• That the seating of the grand jury would interfere with a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.

Dan Monnat, one of Tiller’s lawyers, said Friday’s ruling suggests the Supreme Court will take a serious look at those issues. He said he expected it to take a year or longer for the court to rule on the matter.

Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, said abortion opponents sought a grand jury because of Tiller’s influence in state politics and because potential violations of the law have been ignored for years.

“We don’t expect a lot out of this court when it comes to this issue, so I’m not overly surprised,” she said of Friday’s ruling. Culp’s group was heavily involved in the petition drive.

The grand jury Tiller wants to quash would be the second one that abortion foes have forced Sedgwick County to create in 18 months.

Last year, a grand jury returned no indictments after reviewing the case of a Texas woman who died after having an abortion at Tiller’s clinic.

Attorney General Paul Morrison, a Democrat, filed 19 misdemeanor charges against Tiller in June in Sedgwick County. Morrison alleges Tiller failed to get a second opinion on some late-term abortions from an independent physician, as required by state law.

Many abortion opponents believe Morrison should have focused on allegations that Tiller violated restrictions designed to limit late-term abortions to medical emergencies.

Sedgwick County isn’t the only place anti-abortion groups are using the grand jury power. Abortion opponents submitted a petition Friday asking Johnson County officials to form a grand jury to investigate a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park.

Contributing: Associated Press

Reach Hurst Laviana at 316-268-6499 or [email protected].

By HURST LAVIANA

Sep 07, 2007
Associated Press

TOPEKA – It wasn’t the criminal trial abortion opponents had hoped for, but a legislative committee on Thursday allowed them to air a case against Wichita abortion provider George Tiller that was tossed out of court last year.

Anti-abortion groups also staged a small rally during a lunch break. About 40 people marched to the building that houses Attorney General Paul Morrison’s office, chanting for him to enforce a 1998 state law restricting late-term abortions and to resign for not being vigorous enough in prosecuting Tiller.

Morrison has filed 19 misdemeanors against Tiller in Sedgwick County, alleging the Wichita doctor didn’t obtain a second opinion on late-term abortions from an independent physician, as required by the law.

Many abortion foes say Tiller, one of a few U.S. doctors performing late-term abortions, should be prosecuted instead for performing such procedures for “trivial” reasons, not medical emergencies. Morrison’s predecessor, Phill Kline, brought such a case in December, only to see it dismissed for jurisdictional reasons.

The legislative committee reviewed a DVD recording of an interview with abortion opponents’ star witness, who said the mental health problems Tiller saw in patients couldn’t justify aborting viable fetuses.

A Wichita-area psychologist later said that assessment was wrong, though anti-abortion members of the committee were skeptical.

Meanwhile, Morrison’s office said playing the DVD could make it harder to find an impartial jury.

“I don’t know what, if any, repercussions that’s going to have,” Morrison said. “We’ll have to talk about it.”

Morrison didn’t attend the legislative hearing.

Tiller’s attorneys have repeatedly said he is innocent.

“This is just another attempt to dredge up the dismissed case peddled by Phill Kline,” said attorney Dan Monnat. “Dr. Tiller has fought for years to protect the privacy of the women’s medical files. It’s sad that once again, these women have to continue to wonder whether the content of their files is going to be exploited for political gain.”

The legislative committee’s hearing became the arena for reviewing allegations against Tiller because it is reviewing the 1998 late-term abortion law. It may recommend changes.

The law applies after the 21st week of pregnancy and when a fetus can survive outside the womb. For an abortion to be performed, two doctors must conclude that if the pregnancy continues, a woman or girl could die or face “substantial and irreversible” harm to “a major bodily function.” Also, the two physicians cannot be legally or financially affiliated.

Abortion opponents believe the law was meant to prevent doctors from aborting viable fetuses unless there was a medical emergency. More than 2,600 late-term abortions have occurred in Kansas since the law took effect.

Kline alleged that Tiller performed 15 abortions in 2003 when his patients suffered from conditions such as anxiety or single-episode depression.

Before Kline left office, he paid Paul McHugh, the former chairman of the psychiatry department at Johns Hopkins University, to review records from Tiller’s clinic. McHugh would have been an expert witness for the state had Kline’s case gone forward, and he’s still listed as a potential witness in Morrison’s case.

In June, two weeks before Morrison filed his charges, McHugh sat for a 44-minute interview arranged and recorded by abortion opponents.

“There’s no psychological condition for which abortion is the cure,” he said during the interview.

“We’re talking about the loss of a life, the life of a pain-feeling, sensory-feeling, fully organized human being,” he said of the late-term abortions. “These are the very kinds of little babies that are being taken care of in ICUs all around our country.”

After the committee reviewed McHugh’s interview, psychologist Douglas Mould of Benton testified that McHugh trivialized some of the mental problems women with unwanted pregnancies face. Mould said some potential problems, such as postpartum depression, could be serious enough to justify an abortion.

Abortion opponents also want to revive Kline’s case in court. On Wednesday, they presented a petition with more than 7,800 signatures, almost three times the number necessary, to force a grand jury to convene in Sedgwick County to investigate Tiller.

Associated Press

Jun 28, 2007
The Wichita Eagle
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by Ron Sylvester and Dion Lefler

Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison said Wednesday that his predecessor, Phill Kline, improperly handled an investigation of a Wichita abortion provider.

Morrison concluded that Kline’s case against George Tiller included improperly copied and incomplete evidence, and he determined that at least half of 30 misdemeanor charges filed just before Christmas were “completely without merit.”

Findings on the other 15 charges, which involved late-term abortions, will be released by week’s end, Morrison’s office said.

Kline denied any wrongdoing.

“His depiction of this is false, and it sounds like the law firm of Tiller, Monnat and Morrison has been working overtime,” Kline said.

“It sounds like they spent more time investigating me than anybody else.”

The case has gained national attention, with opponents calling Morrison’s decision politically motivated. The investigation was the biggest issue in last November’s attorney general race.

Tiller has acknowledged performing late-term abortions, and his Women’s Health Care Services on East Kellogg often finds itself at the center of the abortion debate.

Kline stirred controversy when he subpoenaed records from Tiller’s clinic and a clinic affiliated with Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri in Overland Park.

Before leaving office, Kline filed the 30 misdemeanor charges against Tiller. A Sedgwick County judge dismissed the case the next day, ruling that Kline did not have jurisdiction to prosecute without the consent of the Sedgwick County district attorney.

Morrison said Wednesday that there were problems with evidence Kline submitted to Sedgwick County Judge Eric Yost, who signed off on the complaint against Tiller.

Anti-abortion groups worry that Morrison’s announcement is a prelude to clearing Tiller.

“The more serious counts are the ones that really matter,” said Mary Kay Culp, director of Kansans for Life. “No matter what clerical errors Morrison is alleging, and even if they’re true, it’s not going to excuse him for whitewashing the more serious charges.”

Morrison’s report

Morrison said he found four copying errors.

“Kline claimed that in reporting these late-term abortions, Dr. Tiller lied by reporting a fetus as ‘not viable,’ when in fact, it was viable,” Morrison’s report read.

But Morrison found the documents used to support those allegations didn’t match the original two-sided forms. The second page, which listed the fetus as not viable, came from different cases than those represented on the face page, Morrison said. On the originals, Tiller listed the fetuses as “viable.”

“It is hard to imagine a competent attorney making that same mistake four times,” said Ashley Anstaett, spokeswoman for Morrison’s office.

Morrison said that Kline also withheld information from Yost that would have shown that Tiller properly filed the paperwork as required by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Evidence that might dispute the allegations are what lawyers call exculpatory evidence.

“It is unethical to omit exculpatory evidence from an affidavit being considered by a judge,” Anstaett said.

Since 1982, the Kansas Supreme Court has said that prosecutors can’t exclude information from the affidavit that is likely to persuade a judge that there’s no probable cause to proceed with charges.

Morrison’s office said Kline did not include in his affidavit statements from Loren Phillips, a doctor with the KDHE, who said Tiller properly made his reports.

The KDHE has trained doctors, including Tiller, on how to properly fill out the forms and has accepted them the way Tiller completed them for at least 10 years, Morrison’s investigation found.

But that information wasn’t provided to Yost, Morrison said.

Cheryl Sullenger, policy adviser for Operation Rescue, said that if Tiller complied with KDHE’s instructions, “what I say is KDHE is not in compliance with the law.”

Morrison’s office, meanwhile, said he would continue to support changing the law to make probable-cause affidavits — such as the one filed by Kline — open to the public.

Kansas is the only state that keeps them closed to public inspection.

Kline’s response

Kline said he did not withhold from Yost any information provided by Phillips. Kline said he attached a full transcript of Phillips’ deposition testimony to his affidavit.

What he alleged in the charges, Kline said, was that Tiller didn’t provide the detail of information the law requires. He said his interpretation is that the law clearly requires abortion providers not only to certify that denying an abortion would harm the mother, but also to provide a specific diagnosis and explanation.

Kline said that interpretation was consistent with a similar opinion by his predecessor, Carla Stovall.

In essence, Morrison is saying “we have to take Tiller’s word for it,” Kline said. “I differ on that.”

“Morrison is raising one of Tiller’s defenses, which is somewhat unusual,” he said.

That’s because the evidence supports Tiller, said the doctor’s lawyer, Dan Monnat of Wichita.

“We’ve said all along that when the investigation is concluded we’re confident that Dr. Tiller will be shown to be innocent,” Monnat said.

By RON SYLVESTER AND DION LEFLER
The Wichita Eagle

Jun 27, 2007
Kansas City Star
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by Diane Carroll and David Klepper

Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison cleared Overland Park’s Planned Parenthood of criminal wrongdoing Tuesday, but predecessor Phill Kline’s scrutiny of the clinic may not be over.

Yet to come is Morrison’s decision on whether to file charges against Wichita abortion provider George Tiller, who also was investigated by Kline, formerly the attorney general and now Johnson County district attorney.

An announcement regarding Tiller is expected by the end of the week.

As attorney general, Kline began an investigation of the two clinics in 2004. He sought their medical records, saying he wanted to determine whether the clinics had performed abortions on underage girls and failed to report suspicions of child rape to police.

He also alleged that Tiller’s clinic, which performs late-term abortions, used bogus mental health diagnoses to justify otherwise illegal late-term abortions.

In a letter released by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, Morrison told the clinic’s attorney that his investigation is over and that he will return the medical records subpoenaed from the clinic.

“We have interviewed witnesses, and we have analyzed all of the evidence of the applicable Kansas criminal laws,” Morrison wrote.”… we will not be filing any charges against your client.”

Peter Brownlie, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said he was pleased.

“From the beginning, we’ve also said that Mr. Kline’s investigation of Planned Parenthood was nothing more and nothing less than a fishing expedition, conducted for a political agenda,” Brownlie said.

Mary Kay Culp, director of Kansas for Life, accused Morrison of shielding abortion clinics for political reasons.

“Another satisfied customer,” she said.

The announcement might signify a “pre-emptive strike” by Morrison to interfere with Kline’s own investigation of Planned Parenthood, she said.

Kline had sought 90 medical records of women who received abortions, including 29 from Planned Parenthood. After a lengthy legal battle, the files were handed over and all identifying information was ordered redacted.

Kline filed 30 charges against Tiller last year shortly before leaving office, but a Sedgwick County judge dismissed them for jurisdictional reasons. Kline did not charge Planned Parenthood.

In his letter to Planned Parenthood attorney Pedro Irigonegaray, Morrison said that he would ask the court to return the original medical files that were subpoenaed by Kline, and that his office would return the redacted medical records.

But Morrison’s letter said that Kline still has a copy. On Jan. 5, just before leaving state office, Kline referred the records to the Johnson County district attorney’s office, Morrison’s letter said.

Reached by phone during a trip to Washington, Kline wouldn’t say whether he is investigating Planned Parenthood in Johnson County or whether he still possesses medical records or other evidence from Planned Parenthood.

“I don’t comment on the existence or non-existence of a criminal investigation,” he said.

Kline also said he was not surprised by Morrison’s decision.

“Paul’s actions were predicted months ago and fully anticipated,” he said. “For years as district attorney, he demonstrated an unwillingness to look at this kind of evidence.”

He would not elaborate.

Morrison spokeswoman Ashley Anstaett could not say whether Morrison would ask Kline to return the files.

Brownlie said he and his attorneys believe Kline has no right to the records. The clinic has pursued “all legal remedies” to get them back, he said, but so far has been unsuccessful. Knowing that Kline has the records is “a very big concern,” he said.

Tiller’s attorney, Dan Monnat, said the letter to Planned Parenthood shows “Morrison is conducting an objective, separate and professional investigation” of the two clinics, rather than a single investigation.

Monnat said Tiller follows all laws regarding late-term abortions.

“Our position is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow,” he said. “Our client is innocent.”

By DIANE CARROLL AND DAVID KLEPPER
Kansas City Star

Jun 11, 2007
The Wichita Eagle
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by Dion Lefler

Women’s Mental Health Complaints Weren’t Enough To Warrant Abortions Performed At A Wichita Clinic, Says A Psychiatrist Hired By Former Attorney General Phill Kline.

A psychiatrist who reviewed abortion files for former Attorney General Phill Kline said Monday that records of late-term abortions at a Wichita clinic did not meet state legal standards for allowing the procedures.

The records showed the abortion patients were distressed for a variety of reasons, but the files did not establish the “substantial and irreversible” harm required by Kansas law to abort a viable fetus, said Paul McHugh, a professor and former department head at Johns Hopkins University.

Lawyers representing physician George Tiller, who runs the clinic, immediately issued a statement calling the psychiatrist a “hired gun witness” and strongly criticizing him for publicly discussing the contents of the records.

The 44 files at issue are probably the most-discussed medical records in state history.

Kline’s efforts to obtain the files — and subsequent complaints by his opponents that he was invading medical privacy — were at the heart of the campaign in which Democrat Paul Morrison defeated Republican Kline in November.

Although the records have been talked about at length, McHugh’s statements Monday were the first detailed public revelation of what the records actually contain.

He said the diagnoses included 31 cases of major depression, 10 cases of acute stress, one case of post-traumatic stress, one case of acute anxiety and one file which contained no diagnosis.

“They (the patients) were very distressed,” he said. But, he added, “that’s a psychological state… not a psychological disorder.”

Some of the reasons patients cited for their mental distress were serious, such as “I feel guilty, I feel ashamed, I don’t want to put my parents through this,” he said.

In other cases, he said the reasons were “trivial,” such as being unable to participate in a game or go to a concert.

Overall, he said, the reasons given primarily raised social, not psychological, issues.

Those could have been dealt with through adoption or social services, he said.

Kline, an abortion opponent, had cited the records in filing 30 misdemeanor criminal charges against Tiller in December.

The charges, alleged illegal abortions and inadequate record-keeping, were dismissed on jurisdictional issues.

Morrison spokeswoman Ashley Anstaett said the attorney general’s office has reviewed the medical records and additional information and expects to wrap up its investigation of the case by the end of the month.

Of McHugh’s disclosure, she said, “It’s unfortunate that some parties to the case and some previous parties are not respecting the ongoing investigation.”

Tiller’s lawyers blasted McHugh in their statement.

“Reports that a hired gun witness retained by Phill Kline is discussing the contents of subpoenaed abortion-patient records is highly disturbing,” said the statement by lawyers Lee Thompson and Dan Monnat.

“This blatant political use of private medical records validates every conceivable concern Dr. Tiller and the (Kansas) Supreme Court have expressed about the subpoena issued by Phill Kline,” the statement said.

McHugh said the files he reviewed had been stripped by court order of any patient-identifying information, so he does not think privacy is an issue.

The psychiatrist was brought to Kansas this week to discuss the records by Jennifer Giroux, mother of nine children and the head of a socially conservative group called Women Influencing the Nation.

The group operates the Web site www.chargetiller.com and has lobbied the state Legislature for a resolution directing Morrison to reinstate Kline’s charges.

McHugh is scheduled to participate in a panel discussion today in Overland Park with a group of state legislators who oppose abortion, Giroux said.

Reach Dion Lefler at 316-268-6527.

By DION LEFLER

The Wichita Eagle

Author Archives: «Monnat & Spurrier»

Women’s Mental Health Complaints Weren’t Enough To Warrant Abortions Performed At A Wichita Clinic, Says A Psychiatrist Hired By Former Attorney General Phill Kline.