Author Archives: «Monnat & Spurrier»

• Nov 19, 2008
• The Wichita Eagle
• -
• by Ron Sylvester

Tiller challenges charges

Phill Kline’s broad interpretation of a law governing how health care providers report teen sexual activity fueled his investigation of Wichita abortion provider George Tiller, the doctor’s lawyers said Tuesday in Sedgwick County District Court.

Tiller’s defense team is trying to persuade a judge to throw out 19 misdemeanor charges against the doctor because they say the case is based on evidence that Kline collected through abuse of his authority as the state’s top law enforcement officer.

Kline was sued in federal court over his legal opinion on teen sex, and a judge ruled the opinion invalid.

The charges against Tiller stem from how he performed abortions on fetuses that were potentially viable outside the womb. They were filed by attorney general Paul Morrison, who succeeded Kline, and are being pursued by current attorney general Steve Six. But Tiller’s lawyers argue the charges rely on evidence collected by Kline.

Tiller’s lawyers Tuesday showed the connection between Kline’s opinion and his investigation of the state’s two abortion clinics, including Tiller’s.

Barry Disney, the prosecutor handling the case for Six, argues that Kline acted appropriately in the course of the investigation.

Tom Williams, special agent in charge of the investigations division when Kline served as attorney general, took the stand Tuesday to outline his role in examining the abortion clinics beginning in 2003.

Investigation launches 

Kline called for an investigation into Kansas’ abortion clinics three months after taking office as attorney general, Williams said.

Williams said the initial focus of the investigation was to examine whether abortion providers such as Tiller were properly reporting procedures involving young teenagers who might be the victims of sexual abuse.

Two months later, Williams said, Kline gave his controversial opinion on what health care providers, teachers and others must report to state authorities as child abuse.

Kline ruled that almost any sex among teenagers — even consensual activity among those of similar ages — should be reported.

The broad ruling so outraged health care providers and social workers that a group sued Kline in federal court and won.

Williams said he filed affidavits with a judge in Topeka saying that Tiller and an abortion clinic run by Planned Parenthood weren’t following the reporting procedures. But Dan Monnat, who represents Tiller, contends the affidavits were based on faulty data.

Williams said he wasn’t asked to look into the reporting activities of doctors who performed live births for nearly two years.

“It was an incremental investigation,” Williams said. “We couldn’t look into everything at once.”

Williams said the data he used against the abortion clinics came from previous years, when the reporting requirements were more stringent than Kline’s opinion.

Tiller’s lawyers claim Kline targeted the Wichita doctor because he’s one of the few in the nation who perform late-term abortions.

By the numbers 

Williams said he wrote sworn affidavits saying he found a “statistical anomaly” in the reporting of sexual abuse cases from Tiller’s clinic, noting a “paltry” four reports in little more than a year.

Monnat tried to show that investigators manipulated numbers to advance their investigation. He maintains that few teenage girls seek abortions, out of the thousands that are performed in this state each year. Even fewer are victims of sexual assault.

According to Williams’ testimony:

• From 2001 to 2003, 35,945 abortions performed in Kansas’ two clinics were reported to the state’s Department of Health and Environment. Of those, about half were Kansas residents.

• Nearly 1,700 abortions were performed 22 weeks or more into the pregnancy. Most (1,532) were for women from out of state.

• Of the 158 late-term abortions performed on Kansas women, 35 were performed after the fetus was termed viable.

Williams compared those to reports from the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services:

• Out of some 19,000 reports of sexual abuse over a 20-month period, 90 were under age 16 and potentially pregnant.

• Only nine of those 90 girls had visited an abortion clinic, even for consultation.

• Four were reported by Tiller’s clinic as potential victims of sexual abuse.

Based on Williams’ report, Shawnee County District Judge Richard Anderson decided probable cause existed to launch the investigation against Kansas’ abortion clinics for failure to report child abuse.

Williams returns to the witness stand today. Morrison is expected to testify as the hearing continues throughout the week.

Reach Ron Sylvester at 316-268-6514 or [email protected]. All content © 2008 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.

By RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle

• Nov 18, 2008
• Associated Press
• -
• by Roxana Hegeman and John Hanna

Attorneys for abortion provider George Tiller tried to show in court Monday that former Attorney General Phill Kline was planning to prosecute Tiller even before he took office.

Tiller made a rare court appearance as he watched as one of his attorneys sparred with Kline, who launched an investigation of Tiller more than five years ago.

Tiller, one of the few U.S. physicians performing late-term abortions, is accused of violating Kansas’ restrictions on those procedures. He faces 19 misdemeanors in Sedgwick County District Court, filed by Paul Morrison, Kline’s successor as attorney general. But the case rests partly on evidence Kline gathered.

Tiller’s attorneys have asked District Judge Clark Owens to suppress the evidence linked to Kline or to dismiss the charges. They accuse Kline of outrageous conduct in his pursuit of Tiller.

Kline says Tiller is simply trying to avoid prosecution.

Tiller is scheduled to go to trial in March. He’s accused of failing to obtain a second opinion from an independent physician for some late-term abortions, as required by law.

Questioning Kline 

In court Monday, Tiller attorney Dan Monnat asked Kline whether he assumed Tiller was breaking the law.

“I had reason to believe that he was,” Kline said. “My belief was that the law was not being enforced.”

Tiller, who has largely skipped court hearings, sat with his attorneys at the defense tables, occasionally taking a note or doodling on a yellow legal pad. On his shirt was a button saying “Attitude is everything.”

Tiller’s attorneys also have raised as an issue a sex scandal that forced Morrison to resign from office, arguing that Morrison’s mistress, while working for Kline, pressured Morrison into filing charges in June 2007.

Kline was the first witness called by Tiller’s attorneys, and his testimony lasted about three hours. He is expected to testify again Friday.

Monnat questioned Kline about his opposition to abortion, and Kline acknowledged that he personally would like to see all abortions banned.

“You wanted to do something about it,” Monnat said.

Kline replied: “I wanted to enforce the law.”

Monnat also had Kline review several internal memos from the attorney general’s office in 2003. One summarized an April 1, 2003, meeting with Kline and his top deputy, in which they discussed investigating Tiller over allegations that he wasn’t reporting to authorities cases of children being raped, as required by law.

Kline told Monnat that he and his staff were looking at all abortion providers, but, “We had specific information coming forward about Dr. Tiller, as I recall.”

Anti-abortion activist 

In addition, Monnat questioned Kline about hiring anti-abortion activist Bryan Brown as his consumer protection chief in the attorney general’s office.

Kline previously had asserted that Brown, who has been arrested a dozen times during abortion protests, was not involved in the Tiller prosecution. However, defense attorneys produced a 2003 memo Brown wrote with the subject line, “abortion clinic overview.”

Kline then conceded that Brown helped with the facts of the case, while insisting Brown did not consult on matters of law.

The defense also pointed to a 2004 memo advising Kline that Brown and his contacts were obtaining the names of employees at two clinics. Kline defended the use of Brown and other anti-abortion activists, saying it’s “normal law enforcement procedure” to use witnesses in investigations.

Morrison unseated Kline when he ran for re-election in 2006. Shortly before leaving office, Kline filed 30 misdemeanor charges, alleging Tiller performed illegal late-term abortions, but a Sedgwick County judge dismissed them for jurisdictional reasons.

Morrison took office in January 2007, and the attorney general’s office maintains an independent investigation started afterward.

Assistant Attorney General Barry Disney said if Tiller’s attorneys are trying to show that the prosecution of Tiller is selective, they face the reality that Tiller is “uniquely situated” because he performs late-term abortions.

“What we would like to do in this case is take away all that publicity and all that excitement and focus on the law,” Disney told the judge.

All content © 2008 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.

By ROXANA HEGEMAN and JOHN HANNA
Associated Press

• Nov 12, 2008
• The Wichita Eagle
• -
• by Ron Sylvester

Phill Kline will face questioning next week by lawyers representing the Wichita abortion doctor he pursued for years as the state’s top prosecutor.

Kline, the former Kansas attorney general and current Johnson County district attorney, is on the witness list to be called by lawyers for George Tiller in a motion to dismiss misdemeanor charges related to how Tiller performed late-term abortions.

Both Kline and his successor, Paul Morrison, are scheduled to be called in a hearing expected to last most of next week before Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens.

Tiller is one of the few doctors in the nation who perform late-term abortions. His lawyers say Kline abused his power while investigating Tiller’s Wichita Women’s Health Care Services clinic.

Kline began investigating Tiller’s clinic and a Planned Parenthood facility in Johnson County in 2003, launching a legal battle over the privacy of medical records and abortion rights before the Kansas Supreme Court and in district courtrooms in Topeka and Wichita.

“They’re going to subpoena me to try and make this about me,” Kline said in an interview with The Eagle in September, after Tiller’s lawyers filed their motion to dismiss the case.

Tiller’s lawyers said that Kline continued to wield his influence over the case, even after leaving office, by pressuring his successor, Morrison.

Lawyer Dan Monnat has said in a pleading that Kline pressured Morrison through knowledge of an extramarital affair that later led to Morrison’s resignation.

Morrison filed 19 misdemeanor charges related to Tiller’s business relationship with a doctor who provided second opinions on whether the health of the mother was a reason to give them late-term abortions.

State law requires independent medical assessments for abortions where a fetus may be able to survive outside the womb.

Stephen Six, the current attorney general, is arguing that while he doesn’t endorse Kline’s tactics, that shouldn’t negate the current charges against Tiller.

Kline said Six’s willingness to pursue the case confirms he was right.

“Every single record shows criminal conduct,” Kline said in the September interview. “Every one. We were right.”

Also on the witness list next week:

• Shawnee County District Judge Richard Anderson, who presided over secret hearings by Kline, which led to the subpoena of abortion records from the Wichita and Johnson County clinics. Anderson is attempting to quash the subpoena and has requested a protective order to limit his public testimony.

• Special investigator Thomas Williams, who worked for Kline when he served as attorney general.

• Assistant attorneys general Eric Rucker and Steve Maxwell, who led Kline’s investigation of the abortion clinics.

• Assistant Attorney General Jared Reed, who had been assigned by Six to pursue the charges against Tiller.

Six has now assigned Assistant Attorney General Barry Disney, a former Sedgwick County assistant district attorney, to assume responsibilities as lead prosecutor on the case.

Reach Ron Sylvester at 316-268-6514 or [email protected]. All content © 2008 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.

By RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle

• Oct 17, 2008
• Associated Press
• -
• by Roxana Hegeman

Kansas Attorney General Steve Six defended the prosecution of Wichita abortion provider George Tiller on Thursday, arguing in court papers that alleged misconduct earlier in the investigation doesn’t merit dismissing the case.

Tiller is charged in state court with 19 misdemeanor counts of breaking a 1998 state law requiring that a second, independent Kansas physician sign off on most late-term abortions. Prosecutors allege there was a financial relationship between Tiller and Ann Kristin Neuhaus, the Nortonville physician on whom he relied for independent opinions.

The prosecution originated with an investigation by then-Attorney General Phill Kline and Eric Rucker, an attorney in Kline’s office, and continued after Democrat Paul Morrison defeated Kline in the 2006 election.

Tiller’s lawyers filed a motion last month asking Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens to either suppress evidence or dismiss the charges, claiming outrageous conduct by the “obsessed” prosecutor who initially conducted the inquisition on which the case is based.

Six and members of his staff responded in documents filed Thursday that the allegation of “outrageous” conduct was based on speculation and misinterpretation.

In a separate statement provided to the Associated Press, Six said, “I certainly don’t approve of Phill Kline and Eric Rucker’s handling of this investigation, however, it should not result in the dismissal of the charges filed by Attorney General Morrison.”

“This is not about the propriety of the Kline administration’s action, it is about whether the whole case should be thrown out,” Six said. “Even assuming there was some sort of misconduct, the defendant cannot meet the burden required to dismiss these charges.”

Defense attorney Dan Monnat said in a statement he was confident Six will eventually see that rather than waste taxpayer money, the only proper disposition of the “political prosecution” is dismissal.

“We await the Attorney General’s recognition that his office cannot prosecute Dr. Tiller without relying on the tainted products of Kline’s illegal investigation,” Monnat said.

Kline, in an interview Thursday, defended his investigation of Tiller, saying every judge who has seen the evidence has found probable cause that a crime was committed. Kline said Six is only pursuing the case because it had already been filed when Six took office.

Owens set aside the week of Nov. 17 to hear evidence before making a decision on the defense’s dismissal request.

All content © 2008 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.

By ROXANA HEGEMAN
Associated Press

• Oct 03, 2008
• The Wichita Eagle
• -
• by Ron Sylvester

A judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors for Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six should answer nearly 500 allegations of misconduct by his predecessors.

The allegations were leveled by lawyers for Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.

Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens denied a request by Six’s office to wait until after a November hearing to respond to a motion to dismiss 19 misdemeanor charges against Tiller.

Tiller faces charges stemming from the way he sought second medical opinions on fetus viability before performing late-term abortions. Tiller is one of the few doctors in the nation who perform such procedures.

Lawyers for Tiller say the charges should be dismissed because they resulted from an illegal investigation and improper conduct involving former attorneys general Phill Kline and Paul Morrison.

Owens added that he’d allow both sides to file further arguments following testimony at a weeklong hearing set for Nov. 17.

Dan Monnat, who represents Tiller, called the request to leave the allegations unanswered “zany” during Thursday’s hearing, drawing an objection from assistant attorney general Barry Disney.

“After the defense has shown its hand, the state wants to renege on its agreement, play by a different set of rules and hide its hand,” Monnat said.

“We are not playing a game,” Disney responded.

Last month, Monnat and colleague Lee Thompson filed a 156-page brief outlining 496 allegations of perceived prosecutorial misconduct, mostly by Kline, when, as attorney general, he investigated Tiller and an abortion clinic in Overland Park.

Monnat further has claimed that after leaving the attorney general’s office and taking over as Johnson County district attorney, Kline continued to exert pressure on his successor, Paul Morrison.

Morrison resigned after reportedly having an affair with an employee of the Johnson County office. Monnat has said Kline used those allegations to push Morrison into filing charges.

In an interview with The Eagle, Kline repeatedly denied he did anything wrong.

Reach Ron Sylvester at 316-268-6514 or [email protected]. All content © 2008 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.

By RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle

• Sep 16, 2008
• The Wichita Eagle
• -
• by Ron Sylvester

Phill Kline was so obsessed with fighting abortion that he lied to judges and overstepped his authority while serving as Kansas attorney general, lawyers for George Tiller claimed in court papers filed Monday.

Kline also tried to orchestrate a raid by law enforcement on Tiller’s Wichita clinic to seize the medical records of women who sought abortions there, attorneys Dan Monnat and Lee Thompson said in their pleadings.

Now the Johnson County District Attorney, Kline said he didn’t put patient privacy at risk, and he said the allegations are further proof that Tiller thinks he’s above the law.

The lawyers are asking a Sedgwick County district judge to dismiss a misdemeanor case against Tiller because of what they call Kline’s “outrageous misconduct” as the state’s highest ranking law enforcement officer.

A hearing is set for November before Judge Clark Owens.

Kline declined a request for an interview but issued this statement Monday through his office: “Every judge who has viewed the evidence has found probable cause to believe that Mr. Tiller has committed crimes and all this demonstrates is that Mr. Tiller and his attorneys continue to believe that he is above the law.”

Those judges found probable cause, Tiller’s lawyers said, because Kline lied to them and his agents gave false information in affidavits.

Quoting internal memos from Kline’s office when he served as attorney general and sworn statements from associates, the 154-page motion filed Monday claimed:

• Kline and his prosecutors illegally initiated a secret criminal investigation into Tiller’s Women’s Health Care Services clinic and another abortion provider run by Planned Parenthood in Overland Park. They passed memos talking about a “legal obstacle… due to the absence of a definitive complainant or allegation.”

• Kline’s office staff continued the investigation by lying to a Shawnee County judge and including false information in sworn affidavits, claiming to have evidence to suspect crimes when they didn’t. “The prosecution is the product of an obsessed former-AG’s lies, half-truths and material omissions,” Tiller’s lawyers wrote.

• Kline’s office planned to send armed police into the abortion clinics to seize women’s medical records. But Shawnee County Chief District Judge Richard Anderson told Kline’s agents that if they expected resistance to the search warrants, they should try to get the records by a court order.

• After receiving abortion records through subpoena, but losing his re-election bid, Kline gave copies to a doctor and mailed files to his new office in Johnson County and to the Shawnee County district attorney. Kline also had his prosecutors store abortion files in a garage and take some of them to be copied at Kinko’s, in apparent defiance of a court order meant to protect the privacy of the medical information.

• Kline claimed to be investigating Tiller and the Planned Parenthood clinic for not reporting abortion given to underage girls as evidence of sexual abuse. But Kline ignored evidence that showed law enforcement and other health care providers around the state were not reporting live births of the same underage girls he had vowed to protect.

“Patient privacy has never been at risk and the women have never been under investigation,” Kline said in his statement.

Tiller’s lawyers say Kline, after being voted out of office, continued to put pressure on his successor, Paul Morrison, through a woman who was having an extramarital affair with Morrison.

That woman, Linda Carter, worked for Morrison when he was Johnson County district attorney. She remained in the Johnson County office when Kline took office. Morrison charged Tiller in the current case but resigned after the affair became public.

Morrison filed 19 misdemeanor charges related to Tiller’s business relationship with a doctor who provided second opinions on whether the health of the mother was a reason to give them late-term abortions. State law requires such independent medical assessments in cases of abortions where a fetuses may be able to survive outside the womb.

Stephen Six, the current attorney general, said through a spokeswoman that his office “will continue forward with the case.”

Kline’s pursuit of Tiller as attorney general garnered national attention, partly because of the example it provided of the divide over legalized abortion in this country. Kline was profiled in national magazines and appeared on network talk shows as a leader of the anti-abortion movement.

Tiller’s clinic is one of only two in the country that will perform abortions on women after their fetuses have been determined to be viable outside the womb, his lawyers said.

One of Kline’s agents at the Attorney General’s Office, Jared Reed, testified in a case between Planned Parenthood and Kline that the pursuit of Tiller might have gone too far.

“They’re willing to do whatever is necessary to get charges filed or to get abortions stopped,” Reed testified, “whatever is necessary up to and including going above the law.”

Reach Ron Sylvester at 316-268-6514 or [email protected]. All content © 2008 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.

By RON SYLVESTER
The Wichita Eagle

• Jul 29, 2008
• by Ron Sylvester

George Tiller will learn today when he’ll be scheduled for trial, after a judge ruled Monday that prosecutors can proceed with 19 misdemeanor charges against the Wichita abortion provider.

Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens denied a motion by Tiller’s lawyers to dismiss the charges, brought more than a year ago by the Kansas Attorney General’s Office. Owens will meet with lawyers today to decide scheduling.

Dan Monnat, one of the lawyers who represents Tiller, said he expects arguments to continue over the abortion records from Tiller’s Women’s Health Care Services clinic, which led to the charges.

Tiller has denied that he had an inappropriate professional relationship with a doctor who gave second opinions.

A 1998 Kansas law requires women seeking certain late-term abortions to get an independent medical opinion. Before a woman can terminate a pregnancy on a potentially viable fetus, the law requires two doctors to agree that the abortion is necessary to preserve the life and health of the mother. Courts have determined this includes mental health.

Prosecutors say Tiller had a financial relationship with Ann Kristin Neuhaus, a Nortonville doctor who provided second opinions on Wichita abortions in 2003.

Owens ruled that the state’s requirement for a second opinion doesn’t put an “undue burden” on a woman’s constitutional right to seek an abortion.

“A second physician requirement arguably ensures that a woman receives more information about her decision from another physician who does not stand to benefit financially from the abortion,” Owens wrote in a 35-page opinion that also outlined 35 years of abortion law in the United States.

Owens pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court’s original 1973 ruling that upheld a woman’s constitutional right to receive an abortion said that states have an increased interest in limiting abortions the closer a woman gets to the end of her pregnancy.

Monnat said he expects the debate to continue over the abortion records from which the attorney general’s office based its charges.

“We are still going to have to look closer at about how it was determined that the attorney general was justified in going after women’s abortion records,” Monnat said.

The records were obtained by then-attorney general Phill Kline in 2006, after a lengthy legal battle that reached the Kansas Supreme Court.

Kline had been pursuing the records of 90 women and girls who had abortions at the clinic since 2003 — the first year he took office.

He got the records in October 2006, just before his defeat for re-election by Paul Morrison. Morrison’s office reviewed the records then filed the current charges on June 28, 2007.

Seven months later, Morrison resigned after a sex scandal. Stephen Six, Morrison’s appointed successor, inherited the case.

Assistant Attorney General Veronica Dersch continued the prosecution.

Abortion opponents had reason to celebrate with Owens’ ruling. The groups last year petitioned to empanel a grand jury to further investigate Tiller. But that grand jury disbanded July 2 with no indictment.

Kansans for Life says it still doesn’t trust Six, a Democrat, with the prosecution.

“The assistant AG’s in court have been a disappointment,” said Mary Kay Culp, the group’s state director, “and given the current AG’s penchant for laying down for Tiller, we’re not sure where they will end up at trial.”

Reach Ron Sylvester at 316-268-6514 or [email protected]. All content © 2008 THE WICHITA EAGLE and may not be republished without permission.

By RON SYLVESTER