The Dimwit D.A.

While students at Washburn University, Paine and Mozingo led a student group called the Christian Legal Society. According to Topeka Capital-Journal stories published in late 2004, Paine refused to let a student lead Bible study because the student was a Mormon. Because of that incident, the student government cut funding to his organization. Paine and Mozingo's group then filed a federal lawsuit in September 2004 against the university. After the lawsuit was filed, the student government reinstated funding with reassurances that Paine and Mozingo's group would welcome all students. The group dropped the case in April 2005.

Paine's wife, Crystal, runs a Web site called BiblicalWomanhood.com, which offers advice on how to be a good and obedient Christian wife. Jesse Paine's entries on the site suggest that he's a Kline disciple. In June 2001, Paine wrote about what it was like waiting for his future wife: "I had to place Crystal on His altar and give her to Him." Paine wrote that he and his parents began "seriously praying about Crystal" in the winter of 2000. Finally, his father went to Crystal's dad and told him that Jesse wanted to court Crystal. "This is a significant step because under our definition of courtship, we are both committed to marriage, and not to a 'let's try it and see if this works' mentality," Paine wrote.

In May, the Paines were featured in the British documentary Obedient Wives. The BBC's Web site describes the show: "And 26-year-old mother and wife Crystal believes that a wife's primary role is to support and assist her husband. She thinks that wives who work are selfish and that a good wife knows when to keep her mouth shut."

After he was hired by Kline, Paine was assigned to filing charges against those suspected of domestic violence. Paine was told to give priority to cases in which the defendants were in jail; prosecuting such cases first saves the county money that it would otherwise spend housing the inmates. Several sources tell the Pitch that Paine was quickly bounced to the traffic unit with Mozingo.

"The interns that were there [already] were leaps and bounds ahead of these guys," says Ashford, the former assistant district attorney who left in April. "We get interns every year that come to work for Johnson County, and these people cannot wait to get into court and start duking it out and learning. That's what you're used to, and you're not used to someone who is so very, very timid and fearful."

On May 25, Kline's office released a progress report to The Olathe News. The report claimed that Kline's case filings and dismissals, in terms of numbers, matched those of previous Morrison years. Kline claimed that he released the report, which covered his first 100 days in office, to quiet his critics.

"I just want to get the truth out there. It's vitally important to be transparent," Kline told the paper. "I think you need a little bit more time to let these facts sort themselves out, but this clearly shows that some of the silliness that's been bandied about isn't true."

Not exactly. Kline's figures looked at the first 100 days of his tenure and compared it to the same time last year. The figures showed that he had filed fewer cases than Morrison — 2,478 to 2,600. His numbers showed a drop in the number of juvenile, criminal and domestic-violence cases filed. Dismissals over the same period have risen from 39 last year to 52.

Statistics aside, what matters is what's actually happening in Johnson County courtrooms. The Pitch has conducted interviews with 10 current and former employees with the Johnson County District Attorney's Office.

Several of them have shared details of at least 30 botched cases. The cases show that Kline's new hires failed to have a basic understanding of rules of evidence, failed to identify defendants during preliminary hearings, and made lenient deals in cases involving violent crimes. Among the questionable cases:

· Kline's lead prosecutor, Stephen Maxwell, scored a hung jury on March 14 in the second murder trial of David Stagg, a music professor accused of murdering his lover, William Jennings. After the first trial, a jury returned a 9-3 decision in favor of a guilty verdict, leading to a mistrial. A second jury also couldn't reach a verdict, with three jurors favoring guilt before a second mistrial was declared. A Johnson County judge granted Stagg an acquittal March 29.

· John Lowe was accused on January 6, 2006, of threatening to cut his son to pieces. Lowe represented himself. Prosecutors Dave Davies and Eric Rucker gave him a deal on April 13 that allowed Lowe to plead to two "level C" misdemeanors, the lowest-level criminal charge. Instead of 14 months behind bars, Lowe was released with a sentence of the time he had already served in jail.