Battle Of Attorneys Clouds Sex Crime Issue

Sedgwick County District Judge Paul Clark found Thursday that Foulston had legal authority to dismiss the charges Kline filed.

Tiller’s attorney, Dan Monnat, said Tiller is “an innocent man unfairly maligned by Kline.”

Tiller Prosecutor Won’t Respond To ‘Posturing’

But Tiller’s attorneys argue that Kline isn’t capable of fairly evaluating evidence involving Tiller, given his anti-abortion politics. One of them, Dan Monnat, of Wichita, called McKinney “a former Kline campaigner and anti-abortion activist.”

Morrison Won’t Keep Kline’s Prosecutor On Tiller Case

But Dan Monnat, a Wichita attorney representing Tiller, said Thursday that the special prosecutor’s background shows Kline isn’t conducting a fair inquiry.

“I would say no effort was made to find an independent prosecutor,” Monnat said.

Judge Rejects Appeal, Kline Names Prosecutor

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.

McKinney A Longtime Abortion Foe

But Wichita lawyer Dan Monnat, one of Tiller’s lawyers, said of McKinney, “We’ve known him to protest outside Tiller’s clinic.”

Court To Revisit Case Against Tiller

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.

Kline Charges Tiller; Foulston Intervenes

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.”

Kline’s Charges Against Tiller Dropped

“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 Will Seek Investigation Of Kline, O’Reilly

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.

Detective: Valadez Was A Suspect

Valadez got out of jail about 5:30 p.m. Dec. 2, 2004. He met his family at the office of Dan Monnat, the lawyer his three children hired, in time to hear his name linked to BTK on KSN’s 6 p.m. news….More than two months later, Dennis Rader was arrested. He pleaded guilty to 10 murders as BTK and is serving a life prison sentence…