By JUSTIN KENDALL
I take it all back, Ron Sylvester.
Yesterday, I bagged on the Wichita Eagle for Twittering the pretrial hearing of Wichita abortion provider George Tiller, who is facing 19 misdemeanor charges that he violated a law requiring two independent doctors to approve late-term abortions.
But damn! Today's Eagle story is full of the juicy stuff that makes me wish I were sitting in the Wichita courtroom.
Now we know what was at the heart of Phill Kline's endless crusade to obtain women's medical records from Planned Parenthood and Tiller's Wichita clinic: a 10-year-old girl's abortion performed by Tiller, the Eagle reported.
The girl was raped by a relative. She and her mother went to Tiller's clinic with a letter from a prosecutor in her home state that said she required "an immediate medical procedure" that only Tiller's clinic could perform. Guess which procedure.
Prosecutors in her unnamed home state had already charged the relative who raped the girl, the Eagle reported. But court transcripts show that Kline's prosecutor, Steve Maxwell, and investigator Tom Williams convinced Shawnee County Judge Richard Anderson that Tiller had failed to report the girl's abortion, as required by law.
Tiller's attorneys argued that Kline was lying when he claimed that Tiller hadn't reported the girl as a possible victim of child rape, the Eagle reported. Tiller's attorney, Dan Monnat, even provided documents detailing the girl's story.
"That was more than a year after they learned of the [rapist's] prosecution in the girl's home state," the Eagle reported. "Another document indicated Tiller had reported the girl's abortion to Kansas Child Protective Services. But Williams said that wasn't clear to him at the time."
The Eagle also reported that Kline's chief of staff, Eric Rucker, was in e-mail contact with a lawyer for Life Dynamics, a Texas anti-abortion organization, and sought help getting other attorneys general to request Kansas abortion records.
Also of note in the story, former Kline investigator Jared Reed sought immunity from then-newly elected Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison.
"My personal opinion was they were willing to do whatever it takes to get a conviction against an abortion provider, up to and including breaking the law," Reed told the court.
Next week, Kline will return to the witness stand. Ooh, this is going to be totally worth Twittering.
Wait. This just in from Sylvester's Twitter:
I am taking care of my son who had his wisdom teeth extracted, so I am not covering courts today. 35 minutes ago from txt
Noooooo!
Not to worry, Justin: barring another family urgency, I'll be back in court for Kline and Morrison taking the stand next week. Thanks for the shout-out. Twitter on.
Posted at: November 20, 2008 5:16 PM