On this fourth day of hearings on a motion to dismiss 19 criminal charges against late-term abortionist George Tiller, former Assistant Attorney General Steve Maxwell testified in court about his role in an investigation of abortion clinics during Phill Kline's tenure as Attorney General. That investigation resulted in the procurement of abortion records from Tiller's Women's Health Care Services (WHCS). Evidence in those records was used by Kline's successor, Paul Morrison as the basis for the current charges against Tiller.
Maxwell seemed to have left Monnat miffed after repeatedly correcting him about information in his questions that was inaccurate or not factual.
Maxwell was questioned by Tiller's attorney, Dan Monnat, about a subpoena served on the La Quinta Inn for records of travelers who may have been patients of WHCS. Tiller referred patients to the La Quinta Inn in Wichita because he had an arrangement with the hotel at that time for his patients to receive special discounts.
La Quinta Inns later terminated their business relationship with Tiller after Operation Rescue documented and reported to the hotel chain's corporate headquarters that Tiller was using the hotel as an annex of his abortion clinic. Tiller had stabled abortion workers there overnight to monitor women during the labor, and sometimes delivery, of his patients' dead babies, which had been killed by lethal injection to the heart at the beginning of the abortion procedure.
Maxwell testified that La Quinta Inn records were subpoenaed so that they could find the names of pregnant children under the age of 16 who may have been patients of WHCS so they could match the name of the child with the SRS records to see if child sexual abuse was being reported.
Maxwell indicated that he believes that no patient was ever identified through the records obtained from the La Quinta Inn.
Maxwell was questioned about the transfer of abortion records obtained from Tiller from the Attorney General's office to the Johnson County District Attorney's office, where Kline was moving as the new D.A. Maxwell testified that when he prepared the status report for Judge Anderson about the location of the abortion files, he did not know that the Tiller records were being transferred to the Johnson County D.A.'s office.
"In the end, whether or not Kline had a copy of the Tiller records is irrelevant to the current charges against Tiller," said Operation Rescue spokesperson Cheryl Sullenger, who has been present during the entire hearing. "None of what we have heard so far has changed the fact that the Attorney General's office found evidence that Tiller had committed 19 counts of illegal late-term abortions. The merits of those charges are not even a subject of these hearings, and deserve their day in court."
The hearing has been continued until January 6, 7, and 8, 2009. At that time testimony is expected from former Attorney General Paul Morrison. Former Attorney General Phill Kline is also expected to complete his testimony that was interrupted due to scheduling conflicts.
Contact: Troy Newman, Cheryl Sullenger
Source: Operation Rescue
Source URL: http://www.operationrescue.org/
Publish Date: November 20, 2008
Link to this article:
http://www.ifrl.org/ifrl/news/081121_2.htm
