An ethics complaint against former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline is coming in the next 30 to 45 days, Prime Buzz reports. The complaint is tied to Kline's investigation of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and the late George Tiller's Wichita clinic.
Update: Kline's spokesman, Brian Burgess, says, "Phill is focused on teaching and has long ago grown tired of responding to every strategic media leak engineered by his politically motivated opponents who are determined to destroy the threat he represents."
A complaint against Stephen Maxwell, a former deputy of Kline's, that came to light Monday alleges that Maxwell misled a Shawnee County District Court judge into
issuing subpoenas for women's medical records in Kline's now
infamous investigation of abortion clinics. The complaint also alleges that Maxwell withheld information from a Johnson County grand jury.
After reading the complaint against Maxwell, I wondered why there was such a disparity between the number of incidents of abuse reported by the Kansas Department of Social and
Rehabilitation Services (175 in Sedgwick County) and the
Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing
Child Unit (1,884).
Michelle Ponce, director of communications for SRS, says you can't compare the SRS figures and Exploited and Missing Children figures because they don't track the same things.
Ponce says SRS' figures focus on the safety of the child whereas law enforcement's numbers focus on criminal complaints. Ponce says SRS wouldn't necessarily count every incident of abuse that law enforcement would and vice versa.
The comparison of the stats is what Maxwell allegedly used to mislead Shawnee County Chief District Court Judge Richard D. Anderson.
Kline's investigator, Tom Williams,
used the stats in an affidavit to show a "gross disparity" between the number of incidents of abuse
reported by SRS and the Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing
Child Unit.
The complaint alleges that even when notified that there was a problem with the stats, Maxwell
didn't clarify the problem to the court.
On October 29, 2003, Anderson approved the inquisition and
ordered the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and SRS to turn
over the records.
