DA Dash

Let’s face it, who could blame prosecutors for fleeing Johnson County as though Satan himself were about to take over district attorney’s office? It is, after all, political Antichrist Phill Kline who will soon take over for much-liked Paul Morrison.

Word is that several prosecutors have sent out résumés, explored job opportunities at private law firms, and probably considered whether they’re good enough at frothing milk to make it at Starbucks.

Curious about the state of things, we called Scott Toth, who resigned from the district attorney’s office in late November to become a partner at Garretson Webb & Toth in Olathe. He surprised the hell out of us by saying Kline’s not the reason for at least some of the resignations, including his.

The Pitch: So why’d you leave?

Toth: My decision was not based on what’s presently happening in the DA’s office. The time was right for me to go. Having prosecuted for 18 years, I wanted to try something new. I was in contact with my partners well before the change started.

What’s the mood in the DA’s office?

Everybody’s pretty apprehensive about what’s going to happen. It’s an unknown that’s been thrust upon them that makes them concerned about their future.

Did you see divisive politics in the office? Are Kline’s supporters cheering and others sending out résumés?

I’m not sure you see that much of it in the DA’s office itself. The DA’s office, at least at this point, is a nonpolitical entity. It always has been, and Morrison intentionally ran it that way. I would be surprised if he knew the political affiliation of more than, say, 5 percent of the people that worked for him. That’s the way he wanted it, and that’s the way the organization, in my opinion, should be run. They’re prosecutors. They’re not politicians. So the apprehension is more about How does this affect me? more than How am I politically affiliated with this guy?

Politics doesn’t interfere with the average day of an assistant DA?

No, it doesn’t. I was there for 18 and a half years. It never played a role in any decision that I was involved with, and I can tell you that it never played in any decision that anybody else made up there. It’s just not a political organization, and it shouldn’t be.