Log Out | Member Center

61°F

60°/37°

News > State

State

Ex-assistant to Phill Kline denies misconduct in abortion case

Comments (0)

By JOHN HANNA

Associated Press

TOPEKA — A Kansas prosecutor said Friday that an allegation that he misled a judge during an investigation of an abortion provider already has been reviewed — and rejected — in another inquiry.

The allegation and others against Stephen D. Maxwell stem from former Attorney General Phill Kline's investigations into abortion clinics in Wichita and suburban Kansas City. Maxwell was an assistant to Kline in the attorney general's office in 2003-07 and later in the Johnson County district attorney's office.

Maxwell, now senior assistant district attorney in Reno County, filed a formal response Friday to the ethics complaint with the state's Board for Discipline of Attorneys. The board's top investigator filed the complaint in September, and the board has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 17-18.

The complaint alleges Maxwell misled a state judge in Topeka to further then-Attorney General Kline's investigation of abortion provider George Tiller of Wichita. It also alleges Maxwell improperly withheld important information in 2007- 08 from a grand jury investigating a Planned Parenthood clinic in suburban Kansas City.

Maxwell's response denies those allegations and others, concluding that the complaint "fails to state facts that set forth an ethical violation."

Maxwell also argues that some of the allegations, including the one about him misleading the judge, were reviewed before Tiller's criminal trial on 19 misdemeanor charges of violating state restrictions on late-term abortions. Therefore, Maxwell's response argued, the board can't proceed with a complaint on the same grounds.

Tiller's attorneys had asked a Sedgwick County judge to dismiss the charges, arguing that "outrageous" conduct by Kline and his deputies had tainted the prosecution beyond repair. As examples, they cited incidents now listed in the ethics complaint against Maxwell.

The judge denied the request, and a jury acquitted Tiller in March. Tiller was shot to death in May.

Maxwell's attorneys, Reid Holbrook of Overland Park, and Mark Stafford of Topeka, declined to comment further about the case. Ron Keefover, the spokesman for the disciplinary board, said only that the complaint is pending.

"That board will make the determination of the facts and the law and decide whether his actions constituted a violation of the rules of professional responsibility," Keefover said.

If the board's hearing panel concludes Maxwell violated professional rules, any recommendation for punishment would go to the Kansas Supreme Court. The court has the power to revoke an attorney's license but can order lesser sanctions — or none.

The board's top investigator had previously notified an attorney for Maxwell, Kline and another former Kline subordinate that the three would face ethics complaints. So far, only the one against Maxwell has been filed.

Kline received national attention as attorney general for his investigations of Tiller and Planned Parenthood's clinic in Overland Park. Kline lost his re-election bid in 2006 but became Johnson County's district attorney, where he continued to investigate the Planned Parenthood clinic.

The Johnson County grand jury of 2007-08 did not indict the Planned Parenthood clinic. But by then, Kline had filed 107 criminal charges of his own, accusing the clinic of falsifying records and performing illegal abortions. That case is pending.

Kline was voted out of the county office in 2008 and now teaches law at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

Kline has said his investigations ultimately will be vindicated and has described the complaint against Maxwell as a "vindictive persecution." Abortion-rights supporters contend Kline's investigations were driven by his ideology.

Search for a job

in

Top jobs