Dan Monnat, one of Tiller’s lawyers, said he wasn’t troubled by any further review of files involving Tiller. “We have every confidence that Dr. Tiller is innocent,” Monnat said.
One of Tiller’s other lawyers, Lee Thompson, said that the statute of limitations had expired on some of the cases. Monnat said Tiller’s lawyers are analyzing the charges to see how the statute of limitations applies.
But Wichita lawyer Dan Monnat, one of Tiller’s lawyers, said of McKinney, “We’ve known him to protest outside Tiller’s clinic.”
One of Tiller’s lawyers, Dan Monnat, said Tuesday: “We have confidence in the decision made last week by Judge Clark and District Attorney Foulston. We believe that will stand.”
Monnat said he knows of no other similar charges filed in Sedgwick County since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 that declared a basic right to abortion.
“These charges related to his (Kline’s) personal disagreement” with courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, “that a woman’s mental health factors into her decision to terminate a pregnancy,” Monnat said.
Monnat said he and Thompson, a former federal prosecutor, had contemplated the legality of Kline’s dealings with the Sedgwick County District Court but had not discussed the matter with Foulston.
“Really, there were multiple legal grounds on which to get this dismissed,” Monnat said. “Factually, Dr. Tiller is innocent of any wrongdoing, so a motion to dismiss should be granted on that basis. Nola has now found the legal flaw in the attorney general’s parting action, which resulted in an expeditious dismissal.”
“You can see each primary count is Phill Kline’s disagreement with the notion that a woman’s mental health can be considered in a abortion determination,” Dan Monnat, a criminal defense lawyer who represents Tiller, told The Eagle after the complaint had been unsealed. “And each secondary count is some hypertechnical bizarre view of the state’s reporting requirement.”
By 12:50 p.m. today, Clark had signed the order.
Monnat said he and Thompson, a former U.S. attorney, had contemplated the legality of Kline’s dealings with the Sedgwick County court but had not discussed the matter with Foulston.
“We were pleasantly surprised by the courageous actions of the district attorney,” Monnat said. “Really, there were multiple legal grounds on which to get this dismissed. Factually, Dr. Tiller is innocent of any wrongdoing, so a motion to dismiss should be granted on that basis. Nola has now found the legal flaw in the attorney general’s parting action, which resulted in an expeditious dismissal.”
Tiller’s attorneys, Pedro Irigonegaray of Topeka, and Lee Thompson and Dan Monnat of Wichita, issued a joint statement decrying the “national media event.”
“The fears about threats to the sanctity and privacy of medical records were well-grounded,” they said.
Rayburn’s lawyer, Dan Monnat, argued that because city lawyers had backed out of a plea deal, they’d violated his due process rights.
Last year, Rayburn was charged with battery after a scuffle with protesters outside Women’s Health Care Services, 5107 E. Kellogg Drive. The clinic has been the site of many protests over the past two decades — some of them violent.
According to court files, Monnat and the city’s law department had negotiated for Rayburn to plead no contest in a lesser charge of “interfering with a parade.” City lawyers acknowledged agreeing to the deal.
“Dr. Tiller has always consistently, carefully and appropriately followed the law in all respects,” read a statement released on Tiller’s behalf by Wichita lawyers Lee Thompson and Dan Monnat.
The lawyers pointed out that earlier this week Tiller complied with a Texas request for records, which they called “a legitimate inquiry…to more fully investigate a specific event.”
