Olathe News Editorial: "Tiller case being mishandled"
The Olathe News
A McClatchy Newspaper
Editorial Board
Dan Simon, Editor and Publisher
Kevin Wright, Managing Editor
913 764-2211
OPINION page 4
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Tiller case being mishandled
We were right. The Judicial Ethics Committee dismissed the complaint against Sedgewick County District Court Judge Paul Clark. No Admonishment. They didn’t even bat an eye. They protected one of their own, although Clark’s action was clearly a political favor, not a legal concern.
A complaint was filed against Clark after he dismissed 30 charges against Tiller, a Wichita abortion doctor. Clark dismissed the case when Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston filed a motion with his court saying former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline didn’t seek approval from her office to file charges against Tiller in her jurisdiction.
Clark dismissed the case on a technicality without allowing Kline to defend the case. Actually, Clark didn’t even meet with Kline until the appeal hearing, at which time Clark denied the appeal.
The complaint was filed when it was discovered that Clark, a Democrat, failed to disclose in court donations made to his campaign by Tiller’s attorney, Dan Monnat of Monnat & Spurrior law firm, and Foulston, also a Democrat. Clark says he didn’t know who contributed to his campaign, the law still holds him accountable for his campaign funds.
Why would Clark receive the motion when he mostly hears traffic cases? Why would a judge dismiss a case without talking with the attorney who filed the case?
An Kline said that he did meet with Foulston before filing the charges, and that she had no problem with the case then. This also came after a highly contested campaign between Kline, a Republican, and now Attorney General Paul Morrison, a Democrat.
Is something not adding up here? If we can see it, we know the committee can see it.
Morrison hasn’t appealed Clark’s ruling on the Tiller case setting a dangerous precedent for his office. By not appealing this decision, Morrison is stripping away power from the Kansas Attorney General’s Office. This ruling basically says the Kansas attorney general has no power to file cases in a district attorney’s jurisdiction without the permission of that district attorney, a lesser law enforcement officer.
State law gives the attorney general the right to file cases throughout the state, and if Morrison pushed the point, the higher courts most likely would rule in his favor.
But the point isn’t about the attorney general’s power to enforce the law, it’s about defeating Kline and taking away the capability or anyone else’s capability to charge Tiller with a crime.
This political mistake does great harm to the office of the attorney general.
Knowing Morrison, if this were any case that didn’t involve Kline, he wouldn’t allow a district attorney to impede the attorney general. Morrison said he’s investigating the case, but he needs to move on it and make sure this does nothing to weaken the power of the attorney general’s office.
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