Topeka ? Abortion opponents are upset that Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has appointed an attorney who defended Kansas’ best-known abortion provider against criminal charges to the state panel reviewing sentencing policies.

Dan Monnat, a veteran Wichita attorney, has represented Dr. George Tiller in a case filed by outgoing Attorney General Phill Kline in December in Sedgwick County. Kline, an anti-abortion Republican, charged Tiller with 30 misdemeanors, alleging the doctor performed illegal late-term abortions at his Wichita clinic. However, a judge dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds.

Sebelius named Monnat to the Kansas Sentencing Commission last week, leading to criticism from the anti-abortion groups Kansans for Life and Operation Rescue. They noted the governor is a strong abortion rights supporter, and Monnat will serve on the 17-member commission with Attorney General Paul Morrison, another abortion-rights Democrat who is conducting his own investigation of Tiller.

“It’s one of those things that makes you go, ‘Hmm,”‘ Mary Kay Culp, Kansans for Life’s executive director, said Tuesday. “It’s beginning to make ‘The Sopranos’ look like ‘The Brady Bunch.”‘

She said the appointment shows that Tiller, Morrison and Sebelius are politically cozy and makes abortion opponents worry there’s an effort afoot to protect Tiller by manipulating sentencing laws. Troy Newman, Operation Rescue’s president, called the appointment “monkey business” and a “political payback.”

Monnat said the two organizations are floating “zany conspiracy theories,” showing they are “crackpot extremist” groups.

Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran said of the groups’ statements, “That’s just so bogus, it kills me.”

Kline lost to Morrison in the November general election, but his term didn’t expire until Jan. 8. He began investigating abortion providers in 2003 and waged a successful, two-year legal battle to obtain patient records from Tiller’s clinic.

Tiller helped finance several hundred thousand dollars worth of anti-Kline advertising in 2002 and 2006, and his clinic has been the site of frequent protests because he’s among the few U.S. doctors performing late-term abortions.

Kline alleged that Tiller performed 15 illegal abortions in 2003 on patients aged 10 to 22, violating a law restricting late-term procedures to when a patient faces “substantial and irreversible” harm to her health. Kline also said Tiller failed to properly report details to state health officials.

Monnat has said repeatedly the charges were without merit.

District Judge Paul W. Clark dismissed the charges the day after Kline filed them at Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston’s request, agreeing that Kline didn’t have the authority to file the case because Foulston didn’t consent. Kline argued the attorney general has the power to file a criminal case anywhere in Kansas.

After taking office, Morrison began reviewing what Kline collected, and Morrison has promised to bring criminal charges if the evidence warrants it, though abortion opponents don’t trust him.

Morrison spokeswoman Ashley Anstaett wouldn’t comment about the flap over Monnat’s appointment but said of the attorney general’s investigation, “It will be completed shortly.”

Last month, abortion opponents filed an ethics complaint against Clark, noting the judge received maximum contributions to his 2004 re-election campaign of $500 each from Monnat’s law firm and Foulston and her husband.

Then, Sebelius named Monnat to the Sentencing Commission to replace Kathleen Lynch, an attorney the governor appointed to the bench in Wyandotte County. Her two-year term will expire June 30.