AG hasn’t paid ex-prosecutor in Tiller case

? Six months after receiving a bill, Attorney General Paul Morrison hasn’t paid a special prosecutor who handled a criminal case against abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.

The special prosecutor, Wichita attorney Don McKinney, had a state contract that said he’d be paid $185 an hour, up to $25,000. In July, he submitted an invoice showing that he did $35,132 worth of work.

“I really can’t comment on a matter that may involve litigation, except to say Morrison’s office attempted to impose additional conditions on my contract and exert control over the independent prosecutor,” McKinney said.

McKinney was appointed special prosecutor in December 2006 by outgoing Attorney General Phill Kline, a Republican. Morrison, a Democrat, defeated Kline in the election that year and fired McKinney after taking office in January 2007.

Even before appointing McKinney, Kline had filed criminal charges against Tiller in Sedgwick County District Court, but a judge dismissed the case. Morrison later filed his own criminal case against Tiller, which is pending.

Under review

Morrison spokeswoman Ashley Anstaett confirmed Friday that McKinney had not been paid. The Associated Press obtained a copy of McKinney’s bill and a more detailed invoice he submitted with it from Morrison’s office through an open records request.

“We’re just reviewing it to see what’s reasonable,” Anstaett said.

She didn’t have an immediate response to McKinney’s statement about Morrison’s actions.

Brian Burgess, a spokesman for Kline, who is now Johnson County district attorney, said: “Our review of the billing indicated at the time that the bill was appropriate and should be paid.”

McKinney’s invoice showed that he started consulting with Kline nearly a month before Kline announced his appointment. The document shows that $15,670 worth of charges, or 45 percent, were incurred before Kline’s announcement.

At odds

During their often-bitter campaign, Morrison repeatedly criticized Kline for seeking information from the records of patients at Tiller’s clinic and a clinic operated in Overland Park by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. A political action committee formed by Tiller helped finance a postcard campaign that nicknamed Kline “Snoop Dog.”

Kline opposes abortion, and Morrison supports abortion rights. McKinney has protested outside Tiller’s clinic, and he led a Democrats for Kline group.

But after a lengthy legal battle, Kline did obtain edited copies of patient records, and he used the information in building his case against Tiller.

McKinney’s invoice shows that he received a telephone message from Kline on Nov. 29, 2006, and accepted an appointment as an assistant attorney general that day. Research and strategy sessions with Kline and his staff followed.

Kline filed 30 misdemeanor charges against Tiller on Dec. 21, 2006, alleging that the doctor performed 15 illegal late-term abortions in 2003 and failed to properly report the details to the state. Tiller’s attorneys have repeatedly said those charges were groundless.

The next day, a Sedgwick County judge dismissed the case, siding with District Attorney Nola Foulston, who said Kline didn’t have the authority to file them because he hadn’t obtained her consent first. The judge reiterated his ruling that the case should be dismissed on Dec. 27, 2006, the day Kline announced McKinney’s appointment.

McKinney’s detailed invoice indicates he was involved in the filing of the charges and even reviewed a public statement Kline issued after the charges were dismissed. Also, according to the invoice, he even did more than three hours of research on Christmas.

He later pursued an appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court in hopes of reviving the case.

Dismissed

He signed a contract with the attorney general’s office on Jan. 5, 2007. Morrison took office on Jan. 8, 2007, and the next day, Morrison sent McKinney a letter ordering him “to cease and desist any further activity in this matter.”

The Supreme Court later dismissed McKinney’s appeal at Morrison’s request.

Burgess said McKinney would have prevailed in his appeal but, “Morrison dismissed the case for political reasons.”

Then, in June, after criticizing Kline’s case against Tiller as seriously flawed, Morrison filed 19 misdemeanor charges against Tiller in Sedgwick County. Morrison alleges that Tiller failed to obtain a second opinion from an independent physician for some late-term abortions in 2003, as required by law.

Tiller’s attorneys have said he follows the law and that the charges stem from “a difference of opinion between lawyers regarding unusual technicalities.”

A week after Morrison filed his case, McKinney submitted his bill.