Posted: July 21, 2011 - 11:11am
the Topeka capital-journal
Billing records of an attorney representing Johnson County grand jurors raised concerns for former Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline, he testified Thursday morning.
The billing records showed that grand jury forewoman Stephanie Hensel was having meetings outside the grand jury room with special counsel Richard Merker during the period when the investigative body was looking into abortions being performed at a Johnson County clinic.
Merker was one of two special counsel appointed to represent the 15-member grand jury during its deliberations.
Kline contends Merker presented grand jury members with a proposed agreement struck with Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri — operators of the Johnson County clinic being investigated — that made further prosecution of the clinic impractical.
Kline said he first saw the proposed agreement on Feb. 20, 2008 and strongly opposed it, saying it blocked prosecutors from filing any charges based on records Planned Parenthood agreed to turn over to the grand jury.
The grand jury ultimately didn’t enter into the agreement, and jurors never viewed the patient records. It also did not return any indictments at the end of its term.
The proposed agreement with Planned Parenthood was sent before Feb. 20, 2008, Kline testified Thursday in his second day of testimony before a state disciplinary board. That contradicts Hensel’s testimony that she didn’t see it until Feb. 20, 2008, Kline said.
Hensel later filed an ethics complaint against Kline, alleging he intentionally misled the grand jury about provisions of a law regulating abortions in Kansas.
Kline earlier testified Thursday that protecting children was the main objective in his office’s investigation of abortion practices at the Johnson County clinic.
The former Kansas Attorney General, appearing for a second day before the Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys, said limiting abortions at the clinic was never a primary goal in his investigation.
The three-member panel is conducting an ethics hearing tied to Kline’s professional conduct during the investigation.
Kline has said he investigated late-term abortions only as a means to determine the failure to report abuse of underage girls, as evidenced by their pregnancy.
Kline’s earlier Thursday testimony involved what he told the grand jury about what it would be investigating when in session in late 2007 and early 2008.
Kline told jurors they would be looking at seven legal issues including late-term abortions and the mandatory reporting of underage girls receiving abortions.
The grand jury concluded its investigation of the clinic operated by Planned Parenthood in March 2008 without returning any indictments. Kline said he considered seeking a 90-day extension of the grand jury term, but said the panel was too “fractured” to continue.
During his 50-minute testimony Wednesday, Kline denied a previous witness contention that he tried to "demonize" the clinic, or that he called anyone "baby killers."
By the hearing broke for the lunch break, Kline had testified three-and-a-half hours on Thursday and Wednesday before the grand jury.
Kline has since left Kansas to teach at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
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