TOPEKA, Kansas, February 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Witness testimony Wednesday morning in the Phill Kline ethics trial revealed that the former Kansas attorney general did not violate a judge’s non-disclosure order when he submitted a redacted transcript to the Kansas Supreme Court, because Planned Parenthood and late-term abortionist George Tiller had already made the matter public.
Mike Strong was called to the stand today by state Disciplinary Administrator Stan Hazlett. Strong represented Shawnee County Judge Richard Anderson, and was his legal counsel in litigation filed by Planned Parenthood and George Tiller against Kline’s investigation in 2004.
The abortionists’ counter-suit, launched against Anderson’s October 2004 subpoena for their medical records, was dubbed the “Alpha Beta case” because the records of the case were sealed in a protective order to protect the identities of the two suing abortion providers.
Strong testified that Kline’s lead prosecutor, Steve Maxwell, had approached the judge’s office frustrated that the abortion clinics’ lawyers had made misrepresentations of the record in their mandamus brief, and inquired whether it would violate Judge Anderson’s proctective order to include an accurate transcript of trial proceedings, which was redacted to protect patients’ identities. Hazlett had alleged that, despite being redacted, the transcript could not be shared because of the order keeping the case secret.
Strong said that he gave Maxwell no advice, but assumed he would present the transcript in a way that corresponded to the court’s order. The evidence in trial showed that Anderson also gave an unredacted transcript and documents to the Kansas Supreme Court in order to provide a “complete picture about what the underlying proceedings are about.”
But Strong noted that, because the case had already been made public by Planned Parenthood and George Tiller in the form of a mandamus report before the Kansas Supreme Court, Anderson had said the nondisclosure order was rendered moot.
Two more related LifeSiteNews stories:
Kansas Travesty: 249 child-age abortions over 3 years, just four sex abuse reports: Kline Hearings
Kansas judge testifies ‘probable cause’ existed to investigate criminal PP activity: Kline Hearings