Some small amount of
justice in Kansas:
Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline has had his law license indefinitely suspended by the Kansas Supreme Court over allegations of ethical misconduct during his investigation of abortion providers.
Friday's decision comes after repeated disputes between Kline and his critics over his tactics over alleged violations of state law.
Details on the
complaint:
The complaint alleges that after taking office, Kline met with senior deputy Eric Rucker and investigator Tom Williams and plotted a way to "target" Wichita abortion provider George Tiller and his now-shuttered clinic.
The Kansas Office of Disciplinary Administrator alleges that under Kline's direction, attorney Stephen Maxwell -- who worked for Kline in the Kansas Attorney General's office and later followed Kline to the Johnson County District Attorney's office -- tricked a Shawnee County District Court judge into issuing subpoenas for women's medical records in Kline's now infamous investigation.
The complaint also alleges that Maxwell, now an attorney in the Reno County District Attorney's office, and Kline tried to withhold legal opinions and law review articles from a Johnson County grand jury in an attempt to hide the fact that a federal court struck down a 2003 opinion by then-Attorney General Kline that interpreted a child-abuse reporting law to say that any sexual activity between children 16 and younger was child abuse.
In the first complaint, the Disciplinary Administrator alleges that Maxwell knowingly misled Shawnee County Chief District Court Judge Richard D. Anderson with bad statistics from the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services in an attempt to start the inquisition into the abortion clinics.
Maxwell used an affidavit from Kline's investigator, Williams, alleging a "gross disparity" between the number of incidents of abuse reported by SRS (175 in Sedgwick County) and those reported by the Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit (1,884).
The Disciplinary Administrator alleges that Kline knowingly approved of the deception.