Welcome to our online chat with Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline.

The chat took place on Thursday, February 9, at 2:30 PM and is now closed, but you can read the full transcript on this page.

Moderator: Welcome today to our chat with Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline.

I’m Dave Toplikar, World Online editor, and I’ll be moderating the chat today.

General, thanks for coming to our office today in Lawrence.

We’ve got many questions in the hopper today, so lets get started.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: Thanks Dave. I appreciate the opportunity.

Darrell, Bonner Springs: Mr. Kline:

I am concerned that your Christian religious beliefs guide your legal judgments. How can a citizen like myself, who does not believe in religion be assured that my rights are protected and that my choices as a citizen are protected despite your personal religious beliefs? Am I a full citizen with full representation in your office even if I don’t share your religion?

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline responds to readers' questions during an online chat Thursday afternoon in the News Center.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: Thanks for the question Darrell. I have taken an oath to uphold the law – this is my role as Attorney General. Through the years there have been those who have engaged in civil disobedience against laws that they believe are morally supported – Rosa Parks is an example – they express their belief non-violently and take the consequences of their actions to prove a point. I respect such an effort if done in a non-violent manner. I, however, have the honor of serving as Attorney General and upholding the law and this is what I will do.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: If you disagree with one of our state’s laws you have the right and opportunity to seek change through the legislative process.

Tom, Topeka: AG Kline,

As a KS taxpayer, I am concerned about how much your anti-abortion lawsuits are costing us. I recently read a newspaper report indicating that your office paid $150,000 to an expert witness for your trial in Wichita. How much money have you spent on these trials, and don’t you think these funds should be used to fight crime?

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: My office is spending less funds overall than my predecessor four years ago. Furthermore, I have dedicated greater resources to criminal prosecution and we are handling numerous more homicide, rape and child exploitation cases than ever before. The lawsuit you are referring to was not initiated by my office. We were sued by an out of state organization that is arguing that Kansas mandatory reporting laws regarding child rape are unconstitutional. I strongly disagree. Although there is a legitimate debate regarding the policy that debate belongs in the legislature not in a courtroom. These laws are important tools in our fight against child rape. Just this week the Sedgwick County District Attorney, a democrat, testified as to the significance and importance of these laws in the fight against child sexual exploitation. It is my job to defend the constitutionality of these laws. By the way – it has nothing to do with abortion.

Ben, Washington DC: Mr. Attorney General – In reference to your allegations that children were potential victims of sexual assault at the clinics in question; was this supposition on your part or did you have substantiated evidence that these alleged incidents were taking place?

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: I cannot speak about the evidence presented to the trial judge who issued the subpoenas except to say that the judge found “probable cause to believe a crime has been committed and that evidence of the crime is in the clinic files.”

Naomi, Lindsborg: How can you tell from abortion records if child abuse has occurred? Why not subpoena records from any woman who has had a baby?

How many child abusers have you found using this method?

You are obviously on a witch hunt.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: Since I have served as Attorney General my office and the KBI, which I oversee, have investigated or referred for investigation, prosecuted or referred for prosecution over 700 cases of adults sexually exploiting children. Evidence of these crimes comes from numerous sources including hospitals, doctor’s offices, nurses, SRS and yes, live birth records. This simply has not been reported in the media as we do not make the particulars public in order to protect the privacy of victims. Furthermore, I want to point out that I wrote the laws that help prevent the publication of sex crime victims. Privacy is certainly important but no one has the right to keep their rape of a child private.

Ray, Overland Park: Will your investigation into illegal abortions address the publicized allegations of neglect and malpractice in the death one year ago of the Down Syndrome Texas teenager caused by Tiller’s risky late-term abortion in Wichita? (Petitions are currently circulating in Sedgwick County to bring Tiller before a grand jury investigation of this death.)

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: I do not comment on investigations. The one investigation that made so much news was only public on order of the Kansas Supreme Court granting the motion of the abortion clinics to make the subpoenas public. No that the matter has been referred back to the District Court where it belongs I will not comment.

Brock, Lawrence: I want to know why you search through medical records for abortions, when the only people legally allowed to do that are a doctor, and a patient. As Attorney General, I don’t believe that you have the right or need to do it.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: First let me say that I spend very little time on this issue. My office has dozens of homicide cases, numerous cases of child rape, significant consumer protection matters and large water litigation efforts that consume much more of my time than this issue. Having said that – the media seems fixated on this one issue.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: Now to answer your question. (1) we have medical records in virtually every violent crime case we prosecute; (2) medical records that I authorized seek a subpoena for were critical in the BTK arrest; (3) we always protect the privacy of all involved; (4) it is long-standing law that a judge who finds reasonable suspicion to believe a crime has been committed and that evidence of the crime is in medical records may issue a subpoena for the records; (5) it was a judge that issued these subpoenas not my office.

Frank, Bluff City KS: General Kline seems to be using taxpayer money to fund his ideological and “moral” agenda, and to make campaign appearances with public funds. Examples include, besides his anti-choice agenda, his meeting with the conservative majority on the state Board of Education, the Matthew Limon case, his testimony in support of the importation of out of state inmates to fill for-profit prisons in Kansas and his trips for cameos at the Dennis Rader post-arrest press conferences. Can he address this issue?

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: Note quite sure what “issue” you raise but it does demonstrate a lack of understanding on your part of the role of Attorney General. General Stovall defended the sentencing of Matthew Limon under the Kansas law providing for a 17 year sentence on his third conviction of sexually exploiting a child.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: Kansas law did provide for a weaker sentence if the act that Mr. Limon engaged in had been heterosexual rather than homosexual in nature. I voted against that distinction. I believe sexually exploiting a child is just as wrong whether hetero or homosexual in nature. Regardless of my opposition to the law, it is my job as AG to defend the law.

John, Lawrence: So if a 15 year-old boy and a 15-year old girl have sex, you have stated that each is a sex offender as well as a victim of sexual abuse. You have also stated that a mandated reporter (social worker, teacher, et al) has to report knowledge or even suspicion of such activity to law enforcement. Your opinion requires adults best positioned to help such kids to betray their confidences by informing against them thereby compromising the child’s legal interests. Do you think such a big government solution to such an inherently personal and family-focused problem is really warranted?

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: That is incorrect. I have repeatedly stated that prosecutors do not, nor will I, prosecute consensual relationships between children of a similar age. Kansas law, not I, makes it a crime. It is not prosecuted. I will say, however, that children do not report their own sexual abuse. Many are terrified, fearful of harm and some in co-dependent relationships. Accordingly, as the 11 year old is telling the abortion intake nurse please do not tell – it was my boyfriend – the 27 year old step father is out in the car having told her to say that or she is not coming home. That is a case I will prosecute. Docs, nurses, etc, need to be in partnership with SRS and law enforcement to prevent child sexual exploitation.

Charmaine/kcks: Your plan to incarcerate sex offenders for long terms seems to make sense on the surface, but today we have juvenile sex offenders incarcerated that exceed $150 cost a day. How do you plan to reduce this cost?

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: Some who forcibly rapes a child should and must be in prison – the cost to future victims, societal safety, etc. is too high to do otherwise.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: Let me give you an example – in the year 2000 the legislature passed a bill reducing parole and probation supervision on hundreds of felons and actually letting some felons out early – in the four years since hundreds have gone out on our streets, found new victims, committed new crimes and are back in prison. You do not “save” money by letting folks out of prison early.

Mike, Prairie Village: On February 9, 2005 you held a closed door meeting with the five conservative members of the Kansas School Board ostensibly to discuss the growing controversy over the state’s science standards, you also publicly stated that you would support placing stickers on science textbooks similar to those being used in other parts of the country. My question is, how is the evolution debate in anyway related to your job as the state’s top law enforcement officer? Why is your office in any way involved in this issue? Should this not be a matter for the school board and the local school districts?

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: We did not meet on evolution. We spoke about the impact of “no child left behind” and education standards vs. goals and the impact on the Kansas Montoy case. I had been asked whether stating that evolution was a “theory” was constitutional. I stated it was. AG’s are routinely asked opinions regarding the constitutionality of actions. My answer took 30 seconds and that is the amount of time I have spent on that issue.

Andrew, Lawrence: What are you doing to make sure that corporate crime, like that which happened during the Westar scandal, doesn’t happen again?

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: I have established a public corruption and white collar crime unit in my office and we are moving forward with several cases. I have attempted to strengthen penalties, with limited success, for white collar crime. Also, my office is aggressive in preventing consumer exploitation – we were the first in the nation to take action against price gouging during the flu vaccine scare – shutting down a Florida company; we shuttered the doors of a Wichita dating service company that was exploiting the disabled and we led the way in the investigation leading to the prosecution of the Kaufman’s for exploiting their patients. In the last year my office has received 3x more monetary judgments against those who commit medicaid fraud than the 7 years previous years to my administration combined. We are active and aggressive in this area.

Moderator: That will have to be our last question.

General, we understand you have to catch a plane. Thanks for stopping in today to respond to many of our readers’ questions.

I’d also like to thank our readers for their questions.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline: My honor to be here – thanks for the opportunity.