By Kathleen Gilbert
WICHITA, January 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A motion to suppress evidence against notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller suffered a severe blow Wednesday thanks to testimony that unexpectedly supported Phill Kline, the former Kansas attorney general who had procured key evidence against Tiller.
The words of Linda Carter, a former staffer with the Johnson County district attorney’s office who had been subpoenaed by Tiller’s own defense, wound up working against the motion to suppress the medical records Kline had obtained. In her testimony Carter vehemently denied that Kline had pressured her to influence former Attorney General Paul Morrison (with whom Carter had been having an affair) to prosecute Tiller, as Tiller’s attorney Dan Monnat had alleged.
Instead, Carter said she was certain Tiller had conspired with Planned Parenthood to break the law and circumvent Kansas’ late-term abortion laws, and ought to be prosecuted.
“I saw the truth with my own two eyes,” she testified. “I saw the records and made my own opinion.”
“I really doubt that this was the testimony that Tiller’s defense team wanted to hear,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, who was present during the testimony. “Carter dismantled their absurd theories and left them stunned.”
Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline is a central figure in two separate abortion scandal cases: one involving 19 charges against George Tiller, and another involving 107 charges against the Kansas division of Planned Parenthood. Kline has been acting as prosecutor in the latter case. However, he will no longer head the case after Steve Howe, who was elected to the office last August, replaces Kline later this month.
Last month, Planned Parenthood attorney Pedro Irigonegaray subpoenaed Kline as part of a separate case, pursuing allegations that Kline improperly handled medical records. Tiller’s attorneys filed a motion the next day asking for a Sedgwick County judge to grant them all documents related to the Kline subpoena. Tiller’s defense also asked for copies of documents from Kline’s Planned Parenthood abortion investigations that Kline provided to the Attorney General’s office last week on the order of the Kansas Supreme Court.
Troy Newman interpreted this as evidence that Tiller and Planned Parenthood are working together against Kline. “Planned Parenthood and Tiller are obviously working in tandem on a desperate fishing expedition for anything they can use to weasel themselves out of the criminal charges they both face,” said Newman.
“Every judge that has reviewed the records has ruled that there is probable cause to believe that both Tiller and Planned Parenthood have violated the law. But they will stop at nothing to strip prosecutors of that incriminating evidence, and conceal their crimes from the public.”
Early last month, Kline’s Planned Parenthood battle case took a dramatic turn when Planned Parenthood lost one of its bids to suppress the medical records in question. Although the court granted Kline victory on every major point, the language of the published court opinion lambasted Kline so severely that virtually all mainstream media reported that Kline had lost.
The court ordered Kline to give a copy of key medical records to the state attorney general’s office, but did not require him to give up the original records to be used as evidence in the prosecution, allowing Kline’s own case to continue. (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/dec/08120810.html)
“The legal wrangling in these two abortion criminal cases is unlike anything we have ever seen before,” said Newman, who has helped prosecute a number of abortionists around the nation. “It’s almost like the prosecutor is the one on trial, not the law-breaking abortionists.”
For the most comprehensive coverage of the Kansas abortion corruption saga, visit: https://www.operationrescue.org
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Phill Kline Wins Planned Parenthood Abortion Case that Media Reported he Lost
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/dec/08120810.html
Nation’s Only Criminal Case against Planned Parenthood Sinks with Kansas Prosecutor’s Political Fortunes
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/aug/08080609.html