Paige Nichols and Dan Monnat won in State v. Bunyard, reversing a Sedgwick County rape conviction and remanding for a new trial. This case is notable just for the delay between argument (January 26, 2004) and the decision from the KSC (April 28, 2006). The appeal was docketed more than four years ago! Click here to continue reading
Former Wichita assistant principal was accused of abusing a child at school
Prosecutors have dropped child sex abuse charges against a former Wichita elementary school administrator because of insufficient evidence.
Assistant District Attorney Justin Edwards asked or the case against Robert C. Baker to be dismissed before Baker’s preliminary hearing went forward Tuesday morning.
Baker, the former assistant principal at Cloud Elementary, 1212 W. 25th St. North, was accused in February of abusing a 6-year-old girl at the school.
Sedgwick County District Judge Ben Burgess signed an entry dropping the charges Monday afternoon.
“As an educator who spent his entire career of 36 years teaching and mentoring children, Mr. Baker completely understands that when a child makes an allegation of abuse, it must be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated,” Baker’s lawyer, Dan Monnat, said
Marc Bennett, chief deputy district attorney of the crimes against children division, said the investigation included medical experts studying an injury found on the child.
“The review by these experts raised questions concerning the nature and cause of the injury,” Bennett said. “Based upon this information, the decision was made that the state would not proceed further, and the matter would be dismissed without prejudice.”
“Dismissed without prejudice” is a legal term that means prosecutors can refile charges if stronger evidence later becomes available.
Monnat said the case boosted Baker’s confidence in the justice system.
“Mr. Baker and his family are grateful for a district attorney who, even after charges are filed, will continue to review charges and evidence to see that justice and fairness are finally achieved,” Monnat said. Baker is retired from the school district.
By Ron Sylvester
As Wichita lawyer Dan Monnat prepared to hear a jury’s verdict in late March**, he received notice of the latest threat against his client, abortion provider George Tiller.
The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office had heard a rumor of a plan to throw battery acid at Tiller in the courtroom if the jury acquitted him on 19 misdemeanor counts of performing illegal late-term abortions.
Deputies formed a wall behind Tiller and his defense team and the courtroom gallery.
“It was heroic of them,” Monnat said. “And I know some of them may have disagreed with some of the politics involved, but they had no hesitancy to protect people during the trial.”
Little more than a month later, on May 31, Tiller was dead, shot inside his church.
For the first time since the shooting, Monnat sat down to talk about his relationship with Tiller and the five years of legal battles they fought.
“He was the kind of client who was always willing to listen to our advice and uncompromising in his innocence,” Monnat said.
The April trial
The jury took only 25 minutes in April to declare Tiller not guilty of violating a law governing how doctors obtain second medical opinions on some late-term abortions.
As a spring blizzard began to form outside, jurors were anxious to be escorted by deputies to their vehicles. But the six jurors told Judge Clark Owens they wanted to send Tiller a message.
“They are very happy to know that there is someone with a clean, safe, secure facility, where women can have an abortion without having to go to the back alleys or hotel rooms like they used to,” Monnat remembered the jury’s message.
Anti-abortion rights activists had a different view of the verdict.
“Justice has been denied,” Troy Newman president of Operation Rescue said afterward.
“We are committed to continuing our efforts to bring Tiller to justice, and we are confident that justice will one day prevail,” added Cheryl Sullenger, also of Operation Rescue.
Clinic security
The day after Tiller’s killing, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ordered increased security for abortion clinics.
Federal authorities have said they will investigate a possible conspiracy in Tiller’s killing.
Monnat said he noticed a change in federal reaction to perceived threats at Tiller’s clinic after President Obama took office.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE Act, authorizes federal authorities to protect abortion clinics.
“I think there had been other requests during the previous administration for Dr. Tiller’s clinic to be protected under the FACE Act and nobody had done anything,” Monnat said.
But when a vandal attacked Tiller’s clinic, Women’s Health Care Services, on May 1, Monnat said they got a different reaction.
Lee Thompson, another of Tiller’s attorneys, contacted federal authorities, who said they would investigate. But before the investigation could get far, Tiller was dead and the clinic closed.
The vandalism in May was different than what the clinic had seen before, Monnat said. Security cameras and lights were disabled in the parking lot. The roof was tampered with, allowing rain to seep into the clinic and damage it.
“It showed a little more cloak-and-dagger planning and sophistication than the other acts of random vandalism,” Monnat said.
Hearing the news
Monnat is known for working nights and weekends. He was at his desk Sunday morning, May 31, talking to his partner Stan Spurrier when the phone rang.
Monnat made a note of the time: 10:50 a.m. It was Eagle reporter Tim Potter.
“Dan, I don’t know if you’ve heard this and I really apologize if I’m the first one to let you know… have you heard anything?” Monnat remembered Potter saying.
“No, Tim, what’s going on?” Monnat said.
“Well, I heard Dr. Tiller has been shot,” Potter said.
Monnat said he thought of the 1993 shooting in which Tiller was wounded.
“I hoped this would be just like the other one, some crackpot who didn’t know how to shoot, and he’s just wounded and will be fine,” Monnat said.
This time, Tiller died.
Monnat said he called his wife, Grace, who was working at their house, then called other lawyers who might be in danger.
“Who knew how concerted an attack this might be?” he said.
Laura Shaneyfelt, a lawyer in Monnat’s office, called police and asked them to go to Thompson’s church. Both Thompson and his daughter, Erin, had represented Tiller.
“We didn’t want something else happening at… church,” Monnat said.
The lawyers were affected by Tiller’s death.
“You look over your shoulder more than you used to,” Monnat said.
Rhetoric concerns
Since Tiller’s death, Monnat has heard people accuse anti-abortion groups of contributing to the killing because of their graphic rhetoric.
Monnat became familiar with the terms “Tiller the Killer” and references to the clinic as performing “baby massacres.”
But Monnat remembers a recent trip to London with his 80-year-old father-in-law from China.
Monnat said his father-in-law wanted to go to Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park.
“He told me he’d heard about that in China, and it seemed unbelievable that there was a place in the world where you could say what you want without being arrested,” Monnat said.
Monnat doesn’t favor limiting free speech.
“You don’t want to fly off the handle and make a rash restriction on speech that really is embraced by First Amendment freedoms that we’ve fought so hard for,” he said.
Still, Monnat has questions about possible connections between the shooting and the protests.
Groups including Operation Rescue immediately denounced Tiller’s killing. But a number to contact Operation Rescue was reportedly found on the dashboard of a car driven by Scott Roeder, who is charged with first-degree murder in Tiller’s death.
Roeder apparently had multiple contacts with the anti-abortion group and had attended Tiller’s trial.
Operation Rescue has said Roeder was not a member of the organization, had not donated money to it, had not worked as a volunteer and was not active at events.
Monnat said he wonders whether Roeder was affected by years of investigations into Tiller’s practice by former Attorney General Phill Kline, and the eventual criminal charges against the doctor.
“The history of targeting Dr. Tiller as a criminal… makes you realize the awesome power prosecutors wield,” Monnat said.
He pointed to Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston, who drew the ire of abortion opponents when she asked a judge to dismiss the original charges Kline filed against Tiller.
Foulston wasn’t involved in the subsequent cases.
“As everything played out, she was right,” Monnat said of Foulston.
For five years, Monnat saw Tiller portrayed as a possible criminal. And he asks:
“Who knows what the motivation of a hate crime killer is?” Monnat said. “Is it hate, or is it hate fueled by the perception that justice has been thwarted by a jury’s acquittal?”
**CORRECTION: We originally gave the wrong month for the Tiller verdict.
Reach Ron Sylvester at 316-268-6514 or [email protected].
All content © 2009 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.
By RON SYLVESTER
George Tiller was acquitted Friday of misdemeanor charges stemming from late-term abortions he performed, but moments after the verdict was announced the state’s medical board announced it was investigating similar allegations against him.
Prosecutors had alleged that in 2003 Tiller had received second opinions from a doctor who was essentially an employee of his, not independent, as state law requires. But a jury took only about an hour to find him not guilty of all 19 counts.
Tiller, who could have faced a year in jail for even one conviction, stared straight ahead as the verdicts were read, with one of his attorneys patting his shoulder after the decision on the final count was declared. His wife, seated across the courtroom, fought back tears and nodded. The couple declined to speak to reporters afterward.
An attorney for Tiller, Dan Monnat, said the doctor was relieved but noted that he still faces opposition from anti-abortion groups.
Prosecutor Barry Disney said it was “a case that needed to be tried for the community, for everyone to have resolved.”
Tiller, 67, has claimed that the prosecution was politically motivated. Phill Kline, an attorney general who opposed abortion rights, began the investigation into Tiller’s clinic more than four years ago. But both his successor, who filed the criminal charges, and the current attorney general support abortion rights.
Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansas for Life, said abortion opponents were never confident that Tiller would be prosecuted aggressively enough by Steve Six, the current attorney general.
“Even if Tiller had been found guilty, he would have appealed to the Supreme Court,” Culp said, noting that four of the Kansas high court’s seven justices were appointed by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who supports abortion rights.
Soon after the verdict was announced, the state’s Board of Healing Arts made public a complaint against Tiller on allegations similar to those at issue in the criminal case. The complaint was filed in December but not released until Friday.
The board, which regulates doctors, could revoke, suspend or limit Tiller’s medical license, or fine him.
Monnat said they have known about the pending administrative matter since it was filed. He said that in many respects it mirrors the criminal accusations of which Tiller was found not guilty.
“With Dr. Tiller’s acquittal today, we will now be able to give our full attention and cooperation to the Board of Healing Arts in order to work together toward a similar resolution of this administrative matter,” Monnat said.
Kansas law allows abortions after a fetus can survive outside the womb only if two independent doctors agree that it is necessary to save a woman’s life or prevent “substantial and irreversible” harm to “a major bodily function,” a phrase that has been interpreted to include mental health.
Physician Ann Kristin Neuhaus provided second opinions on late-term abortions before Tiller performed them.
The complaint before the healing arts board cites 11 late-term abortions Tiller performed in 2003 on patients ranging in age from 10 to 18. It alleges that Tiller and Neuhaus had financial or legal ties that violated the law.
Board spokeswoman Kristi Pankratz said the agency would move forward with the disciplinary petition despite Tiller’s acquittal. No hearings have been scheduled yet, she said.
According to testimony at his criminal trial in Wichita, Tiller’s patients paid Neuhaus $250 to $300 in cash for providing the consultation. The only way patients could see her was to make an appointment with Tiller’s office.
In closing arguments, prosecutors portrayed Tiller as a smart businessman who intentionally created an illegal relationship with Neuhaus to make his clinic a “one-stop shop” for late-term abortions. The defense sought to show he was a caring physician concerned about the convenience and safety of his patients.
Tiller testified that he used Neuhaus based on advice from his lawyers and from Larry Buening, who was then executive director of the Board of Healing Arts.
Prosecutors tried to show that Tiller ultimately relied on his lawyers’ advice — an important distinction because the judge told attorneys before their opening statements that relying on the advice of an attorney cannot be used as a legal defense to criminal charges. They also questioned Tiller about the conversation with Buening, noting that Tiller had testified that Buening said he couldn’t quote him.
Tiller also testified that in about five cases each year, Neuhaus would disagree with him about the necessity of a late-term abortion. When she declined to concur, the abortion was not done, he said. Tiller estimated that he performed 250 to 300 late-term abortions in 2003.
Kline, the former attorney general who started the investigation, expressed frustration at the prosecutors who tried the case, noting that their only witness was Neuhaus.
“You do not win cases nor achieve justice by calling one witness and ordering your staff not to initiate any additional effort to gather evidence,” Kline said in a written statement.
But Disney said his office thoroughly investigated the case and obtained all of Tiller’s bank records and other available evidence.
“We presented all the evidence that there was,” he said.
All content © 2009 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press
Jurors today acquitted one of the nation’s few late-term abortion providers on charges he violated Kansas law requiring an independent, second opinion for the procedure.
Dr. George Tiller was found not guilty of 19 misdemeanor charges stemming from some abortions he performed at his Wichita clinic in 2003. Prosecutors had alleged that a doctor he used for second opinions was essentially an employee of his and not independent as state law requires.
If convicted, Tiller had faced a year in jail or a fine of $2,500 for each misdemeanor charge. Tiller, 67, stared straight ahead as the verdicts were read, with one of his attorneys patting his shoulder after the decision on the final count was declared. His wife, seated across the courtroom, fought back tears and nodded. The couple refused to speak to reporters afterward.
Tiller’s troubles may not be over. Moments after the verdict was announced, the state’s Board of Healing Arts made public a complaint against Tiller on similar allegations. The board, which regulates doctors, could revoke, suspend or limit his medical license, or fine him.
The complaint was filed in December but not released until today.
Kansas law allows abortions after a fetus can survive outside the womb only if two independent doctors agree that it is necessary to save a women’s life or prevent “substantial and irreversible” harm to “a major bodily function,” a phrase that’s been interpreted to include mental health.
Jurors took only about an hour to reach their verdict after getting the case earlier today.
Tiller claimed the prosecution was politically motivated. An attorney general who opposed abortion rights began the investigation into Tiller’s clinic, but both his successor, who filed the criminal charges, and the current attorney general support abortion rights.
Tiller has been a favored target of anti-abortion protesters, and he testified that he and his family had suffered years of harassment and threats. His clinic was the site of the 1991 “Summer of Mercy” protests marked by mass demonstrations and arrests. His clinic was bombed in 1985, and an abortion opponent shot him in both arms in 1993.
Dr. Ann Kristin Neuhaus provided second opinions on late-term abortions before Tiller performed them.
According to trial testimony, Tiller’s patients paid Neuhaus $250 to $300 in cash for providing the consultation and the only way patients could see her was to make an appointment with Tiller’s office.
Tiller testified that he used Neuhaus based on advice from his lawyers and from Larry Buening, who was then executive director of the Board of Healing Arts.
Prosecutors tried to show that Tiller ultimately relied on his lawyers’ advice — an important distinction because the judge told attorneys before their opening statements that relying on the advice of an attorney cannot be used as a legal defense to criminal charges.
Prosecutors also questioned Tiller about the conversation with Buening, noting that Tiller had testified that Buening said he couldn’t quote him.
Prosecutor Barry Disney asked Tiller whether it was reasonable for him to rely on something that a person has said he would not back up. Tiller insisted it was.
“It might be embarrassing for it to be public knowledge,” Tiller said.
Tiller also testified that in about five cases each year, Neuhaus would disagree with him about the necessity of a late-term abortion. When she declined to concur, the abortion was not done, he said.
Tiller estimated that he performed 250 to 300 late-term abortions in 2003, each costing an average of $6,000.
Tiller said he is one of three doctors in the U.S. who currently perform late-term abortions. The others are in Boulder, Colo., and Los Angeles, he said.
All content © 2009 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.
Associated Press
WICHITA, Kan. — After years of investigations and four days of testimony, jurors here took just 45 minutes on Friday to acquit a controversial abortion doctor of charges that he performed 19 illegal late-term abortions in 2003.
Kansas law permits late-term abortions when two independent doctors agree that the pregnant woman would be irreparably harmed by giving birth Prosecutors charged that the doctor, George Tiller, had an improper financial relationship with a doctor from Lawrence, Kristin Neuhaus, who provided a second opinion in the 19 cases cited.
Dr. Tiller’s clinic is one of three in the United States that perform late-term abortions, and he has been reviled by anti-abortion forces for decades. In 1986, a bomb exploded on the roof of his clinic here, Women’s Health Care Services. In 1991, some 2,000 protesters were arrested outside during summer-long protests; in 1993, Dr. Tiller was shot in both arms by an anti-abortion activist while driving away from the clinic. Protests continue there almost daily.
“It’s been a long ordeal for his patients, Dr. Tiller and his family,” the lead defense lawyer, Dan Monnat, said Friday outside the courtroom. “They’re just happy it’s over.” Dr. Tiller could have faced a year in jail and a $2,500 fine on each of 19 counts. Two dozen law officers stationed themselves in the courtroom to maintain order as the verdict was read, and spectators, most of whom identified themselves as abortion opponents, were searched before entering. A few appeared to pray, but there were no outbursts. Anti-abortion protesters demonstrated outside the courthouse all week.
The Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition in Washington, called the verdict “a setback.” Mr. Mahoney said that had jurors voted for conviction, “they would have put him out of business.” But Mr. Mahoney, who had predicted that the trial would “energize” anti-abortion forces, said it was a “very technical case” that was not relevant to other legal and legislative challenges to abortion.
Assistant Attorney General Barry Disney, who prosecuted Dr. Tiller, said the quick verdict probably resulted from the fact that the issue before jurors was clear and concise. “There wasn’t a lot for them to go back there and argue,” Mr. Disney said.
During testimony, both Dr. Tiller and Dr. Neuhaus, the only witness called by prosecutors, denied that there was anything improper about their financial relationship. Dr. Neuhaus testified that she misspoke during a 2006 deposition when she called herself a “full-time consultant” for Dr. Tiller. The trial is not the end of Dr. Tiller’s legal problems. The state Board of Healing Arts is investigating a complaint that mirrors the accusations made in the trial.
The New York Times – By Joe Stumpe
WICHITA, Kansas It took years to bring the case to trial, but it took a jury less than an hour of deliberating to find Dr. George Tiller not guilty of the 19 charges he faced for allegedly breaking Kansas’ late-term abortion law.
We have just been looking for someone brave enough to say ‘this has to stop, Dr. Tiller is not guilty’ and now we have found those six brave people in the jury that reached a verdict of not guilty on all counts, said Tiller’s attorney, Dan Monnat.
KSN.com
Defense lawyers rested Thursday in the trial of one of the nation’s few providers of late-term abortions, and jurors were told to return Friday.
Dr. George Tiller is on trial in Sedgwick County District Court on 19 misdemeanor charges stemming from abortions he performed at his Wichita clinic in 2003. He is accused of breaking a state law requiring that two Kansas physicians without legal or financial ties sign off on any late-term procedure.
After the defense rested Thursday, jurors were sent home while attorneys hashed out jury instructions and other issues. Jurors were told to return Friday for closing arguments.
On Wednesday, testified that he relied on advice from his lawyers and a Kansas official before getting second opinions that prosecutors say were illegal.
Tiller recalled a June 1999 conversation with Larry Buening, who was then the executive director of the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, which regulates doctors. Tiller testified that Buening suggested he use Dr. Ann Kristin Neuhaus for second opinions with the caveat he could not be quoted saying it.
Tiller testified Buening implied Neuhaus could “come down” to his clinic to meet with his patients.
“He said, ‘Why don’t you use Kris Neuhaus and that will take care of all of your problems?'” Tiller testified.
Under cross examination, Tiller said he relied on what Buening told him but acknowledged he later sought legal advice from his attorneys. When pressed, he said he ultimately relied on his attorneys’ advice.
That distinction is important to the prosecution because the judge told both sides before the trial began that relying on the advice of an attorney cannot be used as a legal defense to criminal charges.
The attorney whom Tiller consulted, Rachael Pirner, testified Wednesday that she advised Tiller on what he needed to do to avoid a legal and financial affiliation with Neuhaus.
“We relied on the representation of Larry Buening in giving our advice to our client,” Pirner said.
Prosecutor Barry Disney has described Neuhaus as essentially a Tiller employee whose only income in 2003 came from patients she saw at Tiller’s clinic. Disney rested his case Tuesday after calling Neuhaus as his sole witness.
When Disney questioned Tiller on Wednesday about the conversation with Buening, Tiller replied: “When she was working for me – correction, when she was providing consultations for the patient …”
Kansas law allows abortions after a fetus can survive outside the womb only if two independent doctors agree that it is necessary to save a women’s life or prevent “substantial and irreversible” harm to “a major bodily function,” a phrase that’s been interpreted to include mental health.
Tiller, 67, said Neuhaus had no financial or legal interest in his clinic and that consultations were done there for the convenience and safety of the patients and physicians.
The defense entered into evidence Tiller’s daily planner, which included notes of the conversation with Buening.
“He said I couldn’t quote him,” Tiller testified. “I made notes of it.”
Based on Buening’s assurances, Tiller said, he decided not to file a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the statute requiring two Kansas physicians to sign off on late-term abortions.
Disney questioned Tiller about whether it was reasonable for him to rely on something that a person has said he would not back up. Tiller insisted it was.
“It might be embarrassing for it to be public knowledge,” Tiller said.
The prosecution also pressed Pirner on the stand Thursday over whether Tiller told her at the time that Buening would not publicly acknowledge that conversation. She said she did not remember that, and her notes did not indicate it.
But she said she would still have advised her client to rely on Buening’s assurances had she known because the Buening and Tiller had “a relationship that goes back for quite a ways.” Pirner said she felt Buening had the authority to tell a physician what he was doing legal.
Tiller testified that he and Neuhaus agreed in 1999 that she would charge patients $250 for consultations and come to his clinic one day a week. He wrote in his planner that day: “Kris glad to do this. Needed the money.”
He said that in about five cases each year, Neuhaus would disagree with him about the necessity of a late-term abortion. When she declined to concur, the abortion was not done, Tiller testified.
Tiller estimated that he performed 250 to 300 late-term abortions in 2003, each costing an average of $6,000.
Tiller said he is one of three doctors in the U.S. who currently perform late-term abortions. The others are in Boulder, Colo., and Los Angeles, he said.
He also told jurors that he and his family have suffered years of harassment and threats from anti-abortion protesters. His clinic was the site of the 1991 “Summer of Mercy” protests marked by mass demonstrations and arrests. His clinic was bombed in 1985, and an abortion opponent shot him in both arms in 1993.
He said federal marshals protected him during the 1991 abortion protests and from 1994 to 1998, after another abortion provider was assassinated and federal authorities reported finding his name on an assassination list.
—
Case is State v. Tiller, No. 07CR2112 in Sedgwick County.
All content © 2009 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press
Prosecutors rested their case Tuesday against abortion provider George Tiller after calling as their lone witness the consulting physician who provided the second opinion required by Kansas law for late-term abortions.
Tiller’s lawyers were to begin presenting their evidence today. They will try to show that Tiller had no improper financial or legal connections with Ann Kristin Neuhaus, from whom he regularly sought second opinions on late-term abortions.
The defense moved for an acquittal after the state rested Tuesday, arguing the prosecution failed to present enough evidence to support a guilty verdict.
Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens rejected the motion, finding there was adequate evidence of financial ties between Tiller and Neuhaus to send the question to the jury. Owens questioned the adequacy of evidence of a legal affiliation between the doctors, but said he would address that matter in jury instructions.
Tiller went on trial Monday on 19 misdemeanor charges stemming from abortions he performed at his Wichita clinic in 2003. He is accused of breaking a state law requiring that an independent Kansas physician sign off on any late-term abortion.
Prosecutors described Neuhaus as essentially a Tiller employee whose only income at the time came from patients she saw at Tiller’s clinic.
The defense argued she only came to his clinic for the convenience and safety of patients, pointing out she paid for her own expenses, such as malpractice insurance and travel costs. Tiller’s patients paid Neuhaus a cash consultation fee of $250 to $300.
Prosecutors on Tuesday tried to cast doubt on Neuhaus’ testimony that such consultations were common between physicians by bringing up a discussion she had with Tiller about her fees when he was recruiting her. The prosecution was trying to show that independent physicians don’t discuss their fees with other doctors for referrals.
But Neuhaus insisted she could not remember whether she had ever discussed with Tiller her consulting fee, even after being shown notes Tiller purportedly took during a conversation over her fees.
Neuhaus acknowledged in later testimony that she had “an agreement” with Tiller whereby she would charge patients an agreed amount and he would start referring his abortion patients to her.
Neuhaus first testified about her relationship with Tiller in a 2006 inquisition under a grant of immunity from former Attorney General Phill Kline, whose investigation of Tiller formed the basis for the current charges against him.
The current attorney general, Stephen Six, also granted her immunity two months ago.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Dan Monnat, Neuhaus said she sometimes declined to concur with a late-term abortion. She testified she was not aware of any abortion that Tiller performed after she refused to consent to it, but added she would have no way of knowing.
Neuhaus acknowledged that she had restrictions on her medical license after a disciplinary complaint was filed, but jurors were told few details other than it involved anesthesia practices.
Neuhaus was accused in 2001 of performing an abortion after a patient withdrew permission. Under an agreement with the State Board of Healing Arts, she changed her consent forms and addressed the board’s concerns about how she kept records and administered sedatives.
All content © 2009 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.
By ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press
The prosecution’s only witness said Monday she did not have a full-time business relationship with Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.
The denial strikes at the main issue that has Tiller on trial in Sedgwick County District Court, charged with 19 misdemeanors.
Prosecutor Barry Disney indicated that Kristen Neuhaus changed her story from what she told another assistant state attorney general more than two years ago.
Neuhaus said that prosecutor Steve Maxwell — a deputy to then-Attorney General Phill Kline — so harshly interrogated her during a secret hearing that she’s not sure what she said.
That marked the first day’s testimony in the case against Tiller in a trial to decide whether he violated a Kansas law regulating late-term abortions.
The trial is being watched by abortion opponents across the country.
“This is the biggest trial in the history of Kansas,” Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, Washington D.C., told some two dozen people in front of the Courthouse on Monday morning.
Tiller is charged with having an improper business relationship with Neuhaus during 19 late-term abortions in 2003. Tiller is charged with 19 misdemeanors, one for each of those abortions.
“I would be asked to evaluate the patients and see if their pregnancy constituted a substantial and irreversible threat to their health,” Neuhaus testified.
That wording -“substantial and irreversible” – is important. By law, two physicians must make that determination before a woman can undergo an abortion in cases where the fetus could survive outside the womb.
Both sides agree that all 19 of the abortions in question were performed after Tiller had determined the fetus was viable and that the pregnancy put the mother’s mental or physical health in danger.
Each time, Neuhaus signed off as the second opinion.
Neuhaus testified she began doing such consulting on late-term abortion cases at Tiller’s Women’s Healthcare Services Clinic in Wichita in 1999.
“Would you agree that right around 2003 that you became a full-time consultant for the defendant?” Disney asked.
“No, I did not,” Neuhaus said.
On Dec. 8, 2006, Maxwell asked Neuhaus the same question during an investigation into Kansas abortion clinics.
“This was the years right after he was shot,” Neuhaus said in a transcript Disney showed to the jury. “I became a full-time consultant.”
“I did use that word,” she said Monday.
But she said she misspoke.
“I was the only one doing consultations,” she said. “I should have said ‘only.’ ”
Neuhaus said her 2006 testimony came during a contentious hearing as part of what prosecutors term an inquisition. That’s an investigation into whether a law has been broken.
“I was being interrogated for four hours,” she said. “I was probably distraught. I don’t know why I said some of these things.”
Neuhaus, who ran a medical practice in the Lawrence area, said she only came to Wichita to do consultations at Tiller’s clinic once a week for half a day.
“I wouldn’t call that full-time,” she said.
To convict Tiller, the state must show that he had an improper legal or financial relationship with Neuhaus.
“This case isn’t about abortion,” Disney told the jury in his opening statements Monday morning.
It’s about their business relationship, he said.
“It’s about this defendant intentionally setting up this relationship, so he could continue business as usual,” Disney said.
Tiller is one of the few doctors in the world who performs late-term abortions, his lawyer Dan Monnat said in his opening address.
Monnat contends Tiller did not pay Neuhaus or control her medical opinions. Although she visited with patients at the Wichita clinic, she sometimes did not sign off on Tiller’s original diagnosis, Monnat said.
“The evidence will show that the prosecution’s theory makes no legal, medical or common sense,” Monnat said.
The jury may not get to consider Monnat’s theory for the defense, however.
Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens took under advisement how he would rule on Monnat’s defense that Tiller was acting on advice from his lawyer at the time and the Kansas Board of Healing Arts.
Monnat said the state’s medical licensing board recommended Tiller use Neuhaus for his second opinions in 1999. Tiller’s then-lawyer, Wichita attorney Rachael Pirner, agreed.
Neuhaus had been working as an abortion provider in the Lawrence and Kansas City areas since the mid-1990s.
Monnat said the state can’t prosecute someone for a crime for following its recommendation.
Owens said the law allows advice of counsel or “ignorance of the law” to be used as a defense in a limited number of cases.
Reach Ron Sylvester at 316-268-6514 or [email protected]. All content © 2009 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.
By RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle