Wichita ? Opposition to abortion drove former Attorney General Phill Kline and his top deputy to prosecute Dr. George Tiller, an investigator who worked for Kline testified Wednesday.

“They were willing to do whatever it took, including breaking the law or going above the law, to get a conviction,” Jared Reed testified during a hearing on a request by Tiller’s lawyers to dismiss criminal charges or suppress some evidence against the the Wichita physician.

Tiller is charged with 19 misdemeanor counts of breaking Kansas law by failing to get a second opinion from an independent physician before performing some late-term abortions. His trial in Sedgwick County District Court is scheduled for March.

Kline took office in January 2003, inheriting Reed and other staff members from his predecessor, and began investigating Tiller that same year.

Assistant Attorney General Barry Disney suggested Wednesday that Reed was speculating on the motives of Kline and top deputy attorney general Eric Rucker. He questioned whether Reed had sufficient experience and involvement in the case to make such a judgment.

But Rucker acknowledged on the witness stand that he once asked the chief attorney for a Texas anti-abortion group, Life Dynamics Inc., for help in getting other states to investigate Kansas abortion providers, including Tiller.

Tiller’s attorneys called both Reed and Rucker as witnesses in hopes of showing that the doctor is the target of zealous prosecutors.

The charges against Tiller were filed in June 2007 by Attorney General Paul Morrison, an abortion-rights Democrat, based partly on the evidence gathered by Kline, an anti-abortion Republican. Kline testified Monday and is expected to return to the stand next week; Morrison could testify today.

Reed and Rucker had their jobs throughout Kline’s four years as attorney general and had the same roles when Kline later became Johnson County district attorney. Rucker still works for Kline; Reed left the district attorney’s office in September, on good terms, he testified.

Reed testified he sought and received immunity from Morrison’s staff in April 2007 because of speculation among Kline’s staff that Morrison would try to prosecute some of them over how the Tiller case was handled.

Reed said Rucker told him then that careers are worth sacrificing for greater causes, including “the killing of babies,” an assertion Rucker has denied.