TOPEKA, Kan. — A hearing resumed Tuesday into former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline's conduct while investigating abortion providers with testimony from a woman who once led a Kansas City-area grand jury and complained that Kline and his subordinates misled the group.
A three-member panel of the state Board for Discipline of Attorneys hopes to wrap up its hearings this week. It will make a recommendation to the Kansas Supreme Court on whether Kline should face any sanctions for actions he took while attorney general from 2003 to 2007 and as Johnson County district attorney in 2007 and 2008.
Kline, an anti-abortion Republican, gained national attention for investigating abortion providers but was voted out of both offices. He's now a visiting assistant law professor at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., which was founded by evangelist Jerry Falwell.
The state Supreme Court, which has the final say in any penalty, already has criticized Kline in decisions in abortion cases.
The three-member panel had eight days of hearings in February and March. The latest hearings focus on an allegation that when Kline was district attorney, he and his office misled a Johnson County grand jury that was formed late in 2007 to investigate a Planned Parenthood clinic.
Stephanie Hensel, the presiding juror, testified Tuesday before the panel about its investigation into whether the clinic had failed to report sexual abuse of children as required by Kansas law. She said Kline and his subordinates provided incomplete and misleading information about state law, prompting the grand jury to issue a subpoena for Planned Parenthood records. The grand jury eventually withdrew it and never issued an indictment.
"My concern was that we had been purposely misled on the law," Hensel told the panel. "I still feel that way."
Kline strongly disputes that he or his subordinates provided incomplete or misleading information. He also contends that Hensel and other attorneys representing the grand jury acted improperly during the grand jury's investigation, negotiating with Planned Parenthood attorneys to get records more quickly, even after issuing the subpoena.
The former attorney general and his supporters also contend that the entire investigation of his conduct is politically motivated. They've noted that four of the seven justices were appointed by former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, an abortion rights Democrat.
"I'm confident in the truth. I'm not in the process," Kline said before the hearing resumed. "I would say that common sense dictates that, that's not a proper process. Unfortunately, common sense has not played out in Kansas."
Ron Keefover, a spokesman for the state disciplinary administrator's office, which is pursuing a complaint against Kline before the disciplinary board, said the office and the board are independent of the court.
Other than recommending an investigation of Kline's conduct in a decision, Keefover said, "The court has no involvement at this stage."
As attorney general, Kline investigated both the Planned Parenthood clinic, in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, and one operated by the late Dr. George Tiller in Wichita.
Tiller faced misdemeanor charges of violating a state law dealing with late-term abortions but was acquitted in a case pursued by Kline's successors as attorney general — Democrats who supported abortion rights. Just weeks after the acquittal, Tiller was shot to death by a man professing strong anti-abortion views.
Kline didn't file criminal charges against the Planned Parenthood clinic until October 2007, when he was Johnson County district attorney. He'd been appointed by fellow Republicans to fill a vacancy.
He filed 107 charges, accusing the clinic of falsifying documents and performing illegal abortions, which it denies. That case — delayed by long legal disputes over the handling of patient records and Kline's conduct — is still pending. A preliminary hearing, to determine whether the case goes to trial, is scheduled for Oct. 24-26.
But even as he filed those charges in 2007, anti-abortion groups used petitions signed by voters to force Johnson County to convene a grand jury to investigate the Planned Parenthood clinic on multiple issues.
Hensel testified during the ethics hearing that Kline and subordinates told the grand jury that abortion providers were required by state law to report each case of a patient under 16 to authorities as a sexual abuse case, because the state's age of consent is 16.
That was in line with a legal opinion Kline issued as attorney general in 2003, but it prompted a federal lawsuit and a federal judge blocked the state from enforcing the law as Kline spelled out. A federal appeals court dismissed the case as moot after a new reporting law took effect in 2007.
Hensel testified Tuesday that the grand jury didn't know about the previous version of the law, the federal lawsuit or the federal judge's injunction until it was going through a law book in its discussions — even though it had asked Kline's office for information about any relevant case, ruling or interpretation.
In comments to reporters during a break, Kline said he and his staff provided an accurate summary of the law. His attorneys later produced a transcript from a December 2007 grand jury meeting with comments from Kline to the grand jury that were more nuanced than in Hensel's account.
And Kline told reporters that Hensel and other grand jurors were confused by attorneys the grand jury had retained to help it.
As district attorney, Kline opposed the grand jury's negotiations with Planned Parenthood for records and still worked to get the grand jury's subpoena enforced. Eventually, the grand jury withdrew the subpoena and declared that the district attorney's office did not represent it.