Eric Rucker, Phill Kline’s former top assistant, faces a formal ethics complaint that he made misleading comments before the Kansas Supreme Court.
The state’s disciplinary administrator, who investigates complaints against attorneys, today released the complaint against Rucker, who served as chief of staff when Kline was attorney general.
The complaint alleges that Rucker made misleading comments before the Kansas Supreme Court and used flawed statistics to back up a criminal case.
The allegations stem from Kline’s investigation of abortion clinics. Rucker’s complaint will go before a disciplinary panel in April; the panel will determine whether Rucker violated ethical rules for attorneys and will decide whether to recommend any disciplinary actions to the Supreme Court. Punishment could range from nothing to disbarment.
Rucker could not be reached for comment Monday morning.
Another key Kline deputy, Stephen Maxwell, faces a similar ethics complaint. Like Maxwell, Rucker continued to work for Kline after he left the Attorney General’s office and was appointed Johnson County District Attorney.
The complaint against Rucker alleges that he knew data used to support the investigation of abortion clinics in district court was flawed but took no “action to correct the misrepresentations previously made to the court.”
Also, the complaint accuses Rucker of making false statements before the Kansas Supreme Court.
Rucker represented Kline before the court in 2005. At the time, the court was considering a lawsuit by abortion providers intent on stopping Kline’s investigation. Rucker told the court that his office wasn’t trying to identify adult women who received abortions.
However, the office was reviewing the guest list of a Wichita hotel used by patients of George Tiller, and cross checking it with state abortion data. Investigators were also recording the license plates of cars in Tiller’s parking lot in an attempt to identify their owners.
During a meeting last year with the state’s judicial disciplinary administrator, Rucker said he didn’t know about these efforts during his arguments before the high court. But according to the complaint released today, the disciplinary administrator’s office determined that his explanation was “false and misleading.”
Kline investigated both Tiller’s clinic and a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park, accusing both of violating state restrictions on abortion. So far, none of the cases has resulted in a conviction.
12 Comments
Kline’s Krazy Kook Klub
Huge surprise! NOT
No surprise there. Bad dealings have followed this crooked cat ever since we first made the mistake of electing him.
John Brown, Phil Kline, and Fred Phelps, all from Kansas, and all over the edge religiously, and all of them appear to be nuts. These are the extremist Christians we are fear most. You could throw Pat Robertson in this batch also.
Kline is so unethical that he needed an assistant to share in the unethical behavior.
Democrats are bringing this harassment action. It is a new destructive technique being employed by them. What a pity that a fine public servant must suffer this abuse. Recently, in Alaska, Democrats used multiple frivolous ethics suits to force Gov. Palin from office. The main stream media is ignoring or covering up this politics of dirty tricks.
dumbocrats covering their own dirty tracks
It must be pretty bad when even your fellow lawyers think you are messed up!
Maybe Rucker, Maxwell and Kline could share the same cell. Now that’s jail over crowing I could live with !!!
Since when do abort-Obots worry about ethics?
Kline and Palin????? hahahahahahahahahaha! hahaha! hahahahaha!!!!!! AAAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! HAAAAAA!HAAAAAAAAAHAAAHAAAHAAAA!!!
OMG, my abs hurt! Thanks for the laugh! Really!
Kline and Palin are the face, and willing tools, of the Christian Taliban. Nothing more.
You liberals love to waist time and money—geezzzz–grow up will ya