Topeka ? Attorney General Paul Morrison on Tuesday fired the special prosecutor his predecessor appointed to prosecute Dr. George Tiller, the state’s most visible abortion provider.

However, Morrison can’t force the prosecutor, Wichita attorney Don McKinney, out of office until Saturday because his contract required five days’ notice. McKinney was hired Dec. 27 by then-Attorney General Phill Kline, whom Morrison ousted in November, but his contract wasn’t signed until Friday.

Morrison contends McKinney isn’t objective in assessing the evidence involving Tiller, one of the nation’s few doctors performing late-term abortions. Kline alleges Tiller performed illegal late-term procedures and failed to properly report the details to the state.

“I was fired to protect the abortion clinics,” McKinney said Tuesday.

Kline filed 30 misdemeanor charges against Tiller on Dec. 21 in Sedgwick County District Court, alleging the doctor performed 15 illegal late-term abortions in 2003 on patients aged 10 to 22. A judge dismissed them the next day at District Attorney Nola Foulston’s request, citing a jurisdiction issue.

McKinney was then appointed by Kline as a special prosecutor, to be paid $185 an hour, up to a maximum $25,000.

In a letter to McKinney, Morrison ordered him “to cease and desist any further activity in this matter. You are to return all information that you have received from any source.”

Morrison took office Monday expressing concern that patient records may have been copied and are not secure. A key part of Kline’s evidence was records of 60 patients from Tiller’s clinic, edited so they couldn’t be identified.

Kline, a Republican, is a strong abortion opponent, and Morrison, a Democrat, supports abortion rights. McKinney is a Democrat but supported Kline and has protested outside Tiller’s clinic.

“Morrison said he would fire me because I was not a ‘neutral third party.’ That’s a smoke screen,” McKinney said. “Nobody is neutral about aborting late-term babies. A special prosecutor isn’t supposed to be neutral, he’s supposed to prosecute the defendant.”

Tiller’s attorneys have said Kline’s allegations are unfounded and his investigation of Tiller driven by his politics.