Verbal volleys from the Tiller trial

March 25, 20095:10 p.m.

On television court dramas, witnesses give clear answers to direct questions. After all, the entire story has to wrap by the top of the hour. In real life, testimony isn’t always so easy.

Put yourself in the jurors’ seat for this exchange between Kristen Neuhaus and prosecutor Barry Disney during the trial of George Tiller Monday. Tiller is charged with performing abortions in an illegal business relationship with Neuhaus, another doctor.

In the following video, Neuhaus appears to take pains to keep from saying she “worked” for Tiller, even has she compares what she did in Wichita to a doctor she “worked for” in Kansas City, Kan. This video lasts less than three minutes. Jurors have had to listen to days of this kind of testimony:

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What more do you need to know about Paul Morrison and Linda Carter?

Jan. 8, 20095:56 p.m.

People have been asking me this week about what Linda Carter’s affair with former Attorney General Paul Morrison has to do with a criminal case against Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller. Tiller’s lawyer Dan Monnat tried to show that Morrison so wanted to please Carter that he’d do anything for her. Since she opposed the late-term abortions Tiller has performed, Carter testified she wanted to see Tiller charged.

Such actions would have been uncharacteristic for Morrison. To present circumstantial evidence that Morrison wasn’t acting like himself back in 2007, Monnat questioned Carter about other behavior that was out of character for the prosecutor, such as getting a tattoo, as she explains in this video:

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Courtroom drama resumes today in Kansas v. Tiller

Jan. 6, 20095:00 a.m.

A former Kansas attorney general who crusaded against abortion, his successor and the successor’s former lover are all scheduled to take the stand in a Wichita courtroom this week.

Sound like a political soap opera? No, it’s just the latest hearing in the case of Kansas v. George Tiller, the Wichita abortion doctor.

You can follow live updates from the courtroom, via Twitter, by refreshing the box to the left of this blog, or going here.

Phill Kline, who as AG began investigating Tiller in 2003, began testifying in November but had to postpone his testimony because of conflicts in travel plans. He is set to retake the stand today.

Kline’s successor as AG, Paul Morrison, is also scheduled to testify this week, as is Linda Carter, whose extramarital affair caused Morrison to resign. Carter also worked for Kline, who assumed Morrison’s old role as Johnson County district attorney.

Tiller’s lawyer, Dan Monnat, is arguing that Kline overstepped the bounds of his authority in investigating Tiller, including by enlisting Carter’s help in getting Morrison to file charges.

Tiller faces 19 misdemeanor charges alleging that he had an improper financial relationship with a doctor who provided second opinions for women seeking late-term abortions.

The case is now being pursued by current Attorney General Steve Six, through prosecutor Barry Disney.

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Anti-abortion preacher petitions to get Tiller’s shooter pardoned

Nov. 25, 20085:41 p.m.

An anti-abortion preacher who spent four years in prison in connection with clinic bombings now wants President Bush to pardon the woman who shot Wichita abortion provider George Tiller 15 years ago.

Shelley Shannon

Shelley Shannon

Rev. Michael Bray of Maryland has an online petition to ask Bush to pardon Shelley Shannon, who shot Tiller at his clinic on Aug. 19, 1993.

Shannon finished serving her Kansas prison time for attempted murder and aggravated assault in April 2005. But she’s now serving a federal sentence in Dublin, Calif., in connection with the shooting. She also was convicted of fire and bombing attacks on other abortion clinics, including those in Oregon, California and Nevada, which authorities learned about through letters she wrote from jail following Tiller’s shooting.

Bray said in a statement on his Web site, defending Shannon: “Unfortunately, as with all anti-abortion cases where the defenders of the innocents are charged with crimes and brought before the judges in this land, there is no consideration given to the ‘defense of necessity’ -– that these interventions were necessary because a true human being is murdered in every intentional abortion.”

Bray was sentenced to prison in 1985 in connection with the bombings of seven abortion clinics and has written about the use of force in stopping abortion. Some consider him a terrorist. Others call him a hero.

“The suggestion of pardoning a violent criminal for the attempted murder of Dr. Tiller and attacks on abortion clinics highlights the twisted notion of life held by these domestic right-to-life terrorists, ” said Dan Monnat, a Wichita lawyer who represents Tiller. “Her letters, which you can find on the Internet, say ‘don’t insult me by saying I’ve repented.’ “

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AG wants more time to respond to Tiller accusations

Sept. 29, 20088:17 a.m.

UPDATED: A hearing on these motions is set for 3 p.m. Thursday before Judge Clark Owens.

The office of Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six is asking for more time to respond to charges that his predecessors acted illegally in their investigation of Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.

Tiller’s lawyers call motions filed last week by Six’s office “highly unusual.”

Judge Clark Owens originally had given Six’s office until Oct. 17 to respond to the allegations in Tiller’s motion to dismiss the 19 misdemeanor charges against him. But on Thursday, Six asked to the court to let his prosecutors hear testimony before they respond.

That “suggests that the state simply wishes to delay being forced to admit publicly the extent of the former AG’s misconduct,” said Wichita lawyer Dan Monnat in his response filed Friday. Monnat said all the evidence used in his motion came from internal memos and files Six’s office give the defense.

Six’s office also asked that a weeklong hearing set for Nov. 17 be postponed, because a new prosecutor has been assigned to the case: former Sedgwick County prosecutor Barry Disney. Disney, the motion said, has a conflict in another case that week.

Dan Monnat, who represents Tiller, objected, saying the date has been set for two months, asking why a prosecutor couldn’t have been chosen who was available for the scheduled hearing.

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Will Kline have to testify in Tiller case?

July 30, 20089:23 a.m.

Judges and former attorney generals may be receiving subpoenas for a week-long hearing in November to suppress evidence in a misdemeanor criminal case.

That’s not surprising, when that case involves Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.

Dan Monnat, who represents Tiller, said those witnesses — including Phill Kline — could be on the witness list for the hearing set the week before Thanksgiving. Monnat said he plans to file a motion to suppress the abortion records from Tiller’s clinic that Kline began pursuing the year he took office. Kline began his probe in a secret investigation before a Topeka judge. It took Kline nearly his full term to get the records, which he received in October 2006, right before he was defeated by Paul Morrison.

Morrison could also be on the witness list. He filed the current charges last summer before having to leave office amid a sex scandal.

Monnat said he hopes to challenge how Kline got the records, which Morrison used to file charges.

Tiller is charged with 19 misdemeanors stemming from how he got second opinions from another doctor, which are required to perform some late-term abortions. Tiller is set for trial in March 2009.

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Tiller lawyers hope to finish preparing abortion files for grand jury this week

June 11, 20087:16 p.m.

Lawyers for Wichita abortion provider George Tiller say they’ve turned in nearly two years worth of patient records subpoenaed by a grand jury.

Laura Shaneyfelt, who represents Tiller, said patient files for 2004 and most of 2005 have already been turned over and the rest are expected to be complete by week’s end. The grand jury had ordered five years’ worth of files by women who sought late-term abortions at Tiller’s clinic.

“The process is necessarily time consuming to insure complete protection of his patients’ privacy,” Shaneyfelt said.

But it will take more time before the grand jury gets to see all the files. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in May that after Tiller’s lawyers strike all identifying information from the patient records, an independent doctor and lawyer appointed by the court must also review the records and take out information irrelevant to the grand jury’s investigation. The grand jury is looking into whether Tiller complied with Kansas law’s regarding late-term abortions. Its term expires July 8.

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