Complaint alleges Kline deputy misled judge into releasing women’s medical records
If they’re true, the allegations against a former deputy of Phill Kline are damning.
The Kansas
Office of Disciplinary Administrator alleges that attorney Stephen Maxwell — who worked for Kline in the Kansas Attorney
General’s office and later followed Kline to the Johnson County District
Attorney’s office — tricked a Shawnee County District Court judge into issuing subpoenas for women’s medical records in Kline’s now
infamous investigation of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri
and the late George Tiller’s clinic in Wichita.
The
complaint also alleges that Maxwell, now an attorney in the Reno County District Attorney’s office, tried to withhold legal opinions
and law review articles from a Johnson County grand jury in an attempt
to hide the fact that a federal court struck down a 2003 opinion by then-Attorney General Kline that
interpreted a child-abuse reporting law to say that any sexual activity
between children 16 and younger was child abuse.
In the first complaint, the Disciplinary Administrator alleges that Maxwell knowingly misled
Shawnee County Chief District Court Judge Richard D. Anderson
with bad statistics from the Kansas Department of Social and
Rehabilitation Services in an attempt to start the inquisition into the abortion clinics.
Maxwell used an affidavit from Kline’s investigator, Tom Williams,
alleging a “gross disparity” between the number of incidents of abuse reported by SRS (175 in Sedgwick County) and those reported by the Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing
Child Unit (1,884).
A week after Maxwell’s request for an inquisition, Maxwell received an e-mail from Kline’s No. 2 man,
Eric Rucker, saying: “there could be a problem
with respect to the SRS statistical information regarding abuse.”
Maxwell didn’t see a problem.
In an e-mail, he wrote: “It
shouldn’t affect us one way or another. They are the ones that
misrepresented the numbers. We used what they gave us. At some point,
we may have to clarify with the judge if and when we go back for
further inquisition subpoenas. At that point, we can tell him what
happened. Tom and I are going through e-mail tomorrow to try and
develop a plan of action.”
Except, the complaint alleges, Maxwell never clarified it to the judge.
