Special Prosecutor Worked for Kline and Contributed to His Campaign

By JUSTIN KENDALL

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline announced today that he has appointed Robert E. Arnold III and Timothy E. Keck special prosecutors in the Paul Morrison criminal misconduct case. What Kline’s office omitted from a press release about the appointments was that Kline hired Keck to work in the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office when he took over in January 2007. Kline hired Keck at a salary of $85,009.60. They also failed to mention that Keck contributed $250 to Kline’s campaign for Kansas Attorney General against Morrison.

The Pitch contacted Keck this afternoon and asked him if he had a conflict of interest having worked for Kline’s office and contributed to his campaign against Morrison for Attorney General. “Somebody else pointed that out to me earlier, and I’d forgotten that I’d given that contribution … and I’m sure Phill has,” Keck says. “I’m obviously a supporter of Phill’s, but we are going to do a fair investigation regardless of that $250 contribution that I gave in 2006. To me those two things are so far apart from each other.”

Keck also contributed $150 on December 5 to Eric Rucker’s campaign for Shawnee County District Attorney. Rucker is Kline’s chief deputy district attorney.

Keck’s 13 months in the District Attorney’s Office overlapped with that of Linda Carter, the former director of administration for the office who is now accusing Morrison of sexual harassment. “I didn’t work directly for or with Linda Carter,” Keck says. “She worked in the same office that I did, but that was about the extent of the contact that I had with her. I didn’t have any knowledge of the allegations except for what was in the media even up until now.”

Keck says he worked in the sex crimes unit of the District Attorney’s Office under Assistant District Attorney Chris McMullin.

Keck says he received the Morrison file today. “We’re going to do a fair investigation,” Keck says. “Bob and I have both had various public service jobs and been attorneys for a long time, both of us. And we want to do a fair and impartial job and respect everybody’s interests here.”

Keck says he and Arnold are charging $200 an hour for their time and $100 an hour for paralegal work.