Kansas Judge Says He Can’t Testify in Records Case Involving Abortion Ctr

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 20, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Kansas Judge Says He Can’t Testify in Records Case Involving Abortion Ctr

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 20
, 2008

Overland Park, KS (LifeNews.com) — A Kansas judge who is slated to testify next week in the latest segment of the saga involving the records from a Planned Parenthood abortion center, says he can’t appear in court. Shawnee County District Judge Richard Anderson was scheduled to appear during the hearing.

However, he has notified the Johnson County court he doesn’t plan to appear at the two-day preliminary hearing.

Next Wednesday, the court was scheduled to hear a request from the abortion business to wait to decide whether local district attorney Phill Kline has legal possession of abortion reports from it until after the Kansas Supreme Court issues its next ruling.

Kline has filed 107 counts against an abortion business suspected of doing illegal abortions and falsifying medical records.

Kline originally obtained state abortion reports as the state attorney general but Planned Parenthood complained about him transferring them to his district attorney office.

Anderson, who oversaw the case when Kline was the attorney general, gave him permission to transfer the documents. He has filed a request to quash the subpoena asking him to testify in this latest case because he is under an order from the state high court not to do so.

Kline told the Kansas City Star he doesn’t know why the state Supreme Court won’t let Anderson testify in the reports case.

“Judge Anderson has already testified that he was so concerned with the documents that he had an independent handwriting expert confirm that the documents did not match up,” Kline said. "I fail to understand how the Supreme Court order is supportive of the rule of law."

Planned Parenthood has sued Kline over the abortion reports and Attorney General Stephen Six sued Anderson saying he should not have allowed Kline to transfer the reports.