Kansas City News Blog

Photo by Michael McClure

Phill Kline

Phill Kline must really be attached to those abortion records. The Wichita Eagle reported this afternoon that Kline tried to mail the medical records to Lynchburg, Virginia, where Kline is now teaching at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. The Eagle quotes court documents filed this afternoon by an attorney for Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller. They claim Kline spent his final day as Johnson County District Attorney boxing up "summaries of abortion patients' records" and trying to mail them to Virginia. The key word is "trying."

"Kline never received the box in Virginia, only because the address on it was insufficient for delivery," [Tiller's attorney Dan] Monnat wrote in his court filing.

D'oh! And he got busted.

I called Ashley Anstaett, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Attorney General's Office, who confirmed parts of the story. Anstaett said that when the box arrived back in Kansas, an investigator with the Johnson County DA's Office locked up the records and called the AG's Office.

"They immediately notified us, and we immediately went over and met with them," Anstaett said. "And our prosecutor, who is working on the Tiller case in Wichita, immediately contacted the defense."

And the defense is now asking a Sedgwick County judge to dismiss the misdemeanor charges against Tiller because of Kline's conduct.

Update: Did Kline really mail the medical records to Virginia? Kline's former spokesman Brian Burgess e-mailed me this explanation tonight.

As I understand what happened here, when the court/judge in Wichita wrapped up the proceedings last month, they mailed Kline's personal documents back to him at the JoCo DA office. The unopened package was forwarded to Liberty University in Lynchburg, which returned to sender because Kline wasn't there yet. When the package came back to the DA Office, it was opened and they pulled out 4 items of Kline's personal property and two items that the court in Wichita should have sent separately. But only THEN did things get interesting ... the AG office was notified, and they notified Tiller's attorneys, who, for the past couple of weeks worked on affidavit, a legal brief and a press release, all which landed today in the Kansas media. All this time, not a single call to Kline or his attorney, by either the media or the attorneys involved, until the false story was already spreading like wildfire in the no-longer-credible Kansas media.

I really don't miss some of you dipshits at all. Have fun in your world of make-believe.

Update II (Friday, February 20, 2:16 p.m.): I just spoke with Chris McMullin with the Johnson County District Attorney's Office. He told me that the JoCo DA's office won't be commenting on the story.