TOPEKA, Kansas, March 2, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline has accused the Kansas Supreme Court of obstructing his investigation into child rape and cover-ups by Planned Parenthood and late-term abortionist George Tiller. The result, he said, has been that after eight years, hundreds of child sex abuse victims have been ignored, in favor of Planned Parenthood.
Kline told reporters at a noon press conference that testimony this morning at his ethics trial revealed “an active effort by the Supreme Court of Kansas, particularly Justice [Carol] Beier, in misrepresenting the record and harming the ability to engage in a legitimate investigation and prosecution of abortion clinics.”
He said that while he and his staff have been put under oath – 16 times for Kline – over his criminal investigation and prosecution of Planned Parenthood and Tiller, not once have any of the abortion facilities employees been deposed and put under oath.
“The Kansas Supreme Court, through Justice Beier in her writing, are misrepresenting the record: by providing false inferences, by engaging in assumptions not in law, and by assuming things without a record that would be inviting additional challenges,” said Kline. “That effectively resulted in the obstruction of a legitimate investigation and prosecution of the abortion clinics.”
“That has been the testimony of this morning. That testimony stands because it is the truth, and it causes grave concern,” said Kline.
At least two justices (one of them Beier) were obligated to recuse themselves from the cases involving the abortion clinics, said Kline, in order to comply with judicial rules designed to protect the impartiality of the courts.
“Justice Beier, formerly worked for the National Women’s Law Center, which represented interests supporting abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood,” he stated. “She should have recused herself from consideration of these issues.”
Kline said Beier’s Supreme Court opinions in three cases, which were the focus of this morning’s testimony, misrepresented the record, engaged in false speculation, and generated “hysteria about patient privacy,” at the expense of sexually abused children.
“Not one patient has been identified in eight years, while I was investigating. Hundreds of child sexual abuse cases went un-investigated. That is not only frustrating – it is wrong. And I hope the people of Kansas remedy that,” said Kline.
But Kline also disclosed for the first time that Chief Justice Lawton R. Nuss also should have recused himself “on cases involving myself.” Kline said that during his time as attorney general he “was presented evidence of Justice Nuss violating the judicial conduct of ethics” and “was forced to file a complaint” against the Chief Justice. Nuss was later admonished for his actions.
“My filing of that complaint, his knowledge of that – and it is something that I have not made public before – should have caused Justice Nuss to recuse himself from consideration of matters involving myself. And I hope the court takes proper action in the future and does just that.”
But Kline said that Kansans should find the judicial interference by the Kansas Supreme Court “alarming.”
“There have been three ‘probable cause’ findings that clinics violated the law. Yet none of the allegations now through eight years have ever reached open court,” he said.
He said the Kansas Supreme Court’s actions “in which the criminal defendants got to put myself and my staff under oath” over his ongoing investigation into their potential criminal wrongdoing was “unprecedented.”
“It’s never happened before in this state’s history, I don’t know where it has happened anywhere in the United States,” said Kline. “And that type of judicial interference in a legitimate investigation should stop.”