Posted on 05/31/2007 3:08:09 AM PDT by Baladas
The controversial investigation of Wichita physician George Tiller's abortion work concludes soon, Attorney General Paul Morrison confirmed Friday.
“Our goal is to have ... a decision made before the end of the month of June,” Morrison said.
The decision will not come fast enough for Rep. Ben Hodge, R-Overland Park. He resigned his seat on the House Federal and State Affairs Committee last week because he wanted the House to investigate Tiller regardless of Morrison's work.
“In my opinion there was ample evidence for Morrison to pursue charges several months ago,” Hodge said Tuesday.
Morrison has not revealed what, if any, action he might pursue against Tiller, a physician who conducts late-term and other abortions.
“I hope that … Paul Morrison will at the end of the day do the right thing and bring charges against George Tiller,” Hodge said.
The “right thing” could mean filing no charges, Hodge said.
“I fully believe in the concept of innocent until proven guilty and so if Tiller's innocent then he should be proven innocent,” Hodge said. “No innocent man should be sent to prison.”
Morrison, D-Lenexa, said he understands whatever he does regarding Tiller will bring criticism. He said he did not arrive in office in January facing only the simple task of starting the Tiller case where former Attorney General Phill Kline left off.
“We got off to a slow start because the documents, the medical records, were literally scattered all over. They were not in this office, so we spent the first several weeks of this administration just trying to find them,” Morrison said. “They weren't here. They were in other offices. …
“Once we got them all together, then we were able to analyze them and we've kept them absolutely secure in one locked evidence room up here.”
Finding the medical records of women treated at Tiller's clinic marked a beginning, not an end of his office's investigation into the accusations, Morrison said. Those records became a source of controversy during the Kline administration with arguments raised about doctor-client confidentiality.
Morrison said his analysis extended be-yond medical records.
“We've looked at a lot of other documents … in furtherance of this investigation that had never even been looked at before, so we've looked at this thing inside and out, backward and forward, more than one time, because we want to be comfortable and we want to be able to articulate why we're going to do what we're going to do,” Morrison said. “That should be open to public scrutiny … and that's one of the reasons we want to be real thorough.”
Morrison declined comment about whether he would re-file the misdemeanor charges, file felony charges or file nothing due to insufficient evidence to garner a conviction.
“This case has generated great interest for good reason – that whole issue is a big public policy issue that faces the state. It's been a very divisive issue and we want to be fair about it,” he said.
Kansas law will dictate the correct course of action, Morrison said.
“Anybody who tells you it's a simple question, they don't know what they're talking about, because there's a lot to it, and that's one of the reasons why we've been so deliberate in how we've approached it,” he said.
Hodge said he does not expect Morrison to charge Tiller with a significant criminal charge related to performing late-term abortions.
“I hope I'm wrong when I say that I don't think the attorney general will bring meaningful charges against George Tiller,” Hodge said.
The belief, Hodge said, is based on contributions made to Morrison by people who support letting a woman chose whether to have an abortion.
Hodge said other committee members also resigned because they did not get to investigate Tiller.
“Out of respect to those four representatives (all Republi-cans), I'm not going to share their names until they're comfortable doing so,” Hodge said.
Morrison said he is not sure what might have followed if the committee majority had tried to usurp his investigative authority as attorney general.
“I'm a real big believer in the constitutional separation of powers and there's some questions about what they have authority to do and what they don't have authority to do, but I'm just glad cooler heads over there prevailed,” Morrison said. “I'm just thankful that they're letting us do our job.”
Hodge, who is not a lawyer, said at most the committee might have subpoenaed some of the same documents Morrison has examined.
“If I thought that that would jeopardize that case, I would not have supported it,” Hodge said.
Very poorly-written article. Gotta work hard to figure out what this is about.
*ping*
Putting it in a nutshelll, depends on his next installment payment being on time.
Drop the pretense, Paulie. We already know Tiller has you in his back pocket.
Morrison is (unfortunately) the Atty General of Kansas now. He used to serve under Phill Kline but switch parties to Democrat so he could run against Kline. Kline was investigating Tiller and Paulie didn’t want that.
Sebelius doesn’t want Tiller shut down either. She’s raked in tens of thousands in donations from Tiller, and even appointed one of his lawyers to the Kansas Sentencing Commission.
Yep. If I wasn't a Christian woman, I'd tell you what I really think of Kathy.
Define meaningful. Kline spent 4 years and the best he could do was a couple of misdemeanor charges. If Morrison winds up reinstating them will that be satisfactory?
Morrison was Johnson County DA. He didn't 'serve under Kline' any more than Kline, having accepted the JoCo DA position he vacated, serves under Morrison.
You’re right. My understanding of the ‘hierarchy’ was wrong - I thought all DAs were ‘dotted line’ to the AG.
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