Fallout from a governor's mansion reception held in April 2007 by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for late-term abortionist George Tiller and his staff when Tiller's abortion clinic was under investigation by the attorney general’s office continued last week.

On Monday, the governor’s office admitted that it had not been reimbursed for the event until May 23.

Kansas Liberty has compiled a special report of the week's events.

• The Photo Furor

The fallout from the party for Tiller and his staff began at the end of last month, when the pro-life advocacy group Operation Rescue posted photos on its website of the soiree that were provided by a “conscious-stricken” individual who attended the event.

In explaining the reception, Sebelius said the event was a prize offered at an auction staged by a political group that supports pro-abortion candidates. The governor indicated that the Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus had reimbursed the state for the cost of the meal.

But Operation Rescue produced evidence that the event had not been reimbursed until the organization published photos taken at the dinner showing almost two dozen members of Tiller's staff with the governor. A Sebelius staffer admitted that a review of records indicated that restitution had not been made until May 23. Sebelius spokesperson, Nicole Corcoran, blamed staff turnover for the confusion.

• Six seeks to silence Anderson

In a motion filed with the Kansas Supreme Court last  week, Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six argued that compelling a district court judge to testify in a criminal proceeding filed against Planned Parenthood by Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline would set a bad precedent.

Shawnee County District Court Judge Richard Anderson was subpoenaed by Kline to testify in the 107-count criminal case against a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park. However, the attorney general’s office asked the Supreme Court to prohibit the judge’s testimony and the high court complied.

In response, Kline filed a motion last week in which he argued that Anderson already had testified in open court that records supplied by Planned Parenthood appeared to have been altered, possibly meaning “that somebody committed a felony in an attempt to cover up a misdemeanor.”

Anderson oversaw Kline’s investigation of abortion providers when Kline was attorney general, and it was during that inquisition that Kline originally obtained copies of records that he believed would help prove criminal acts. Anderson subsequently allowed Kline to have the records transferred to Johnson County after Kline became Johnson County District Attorney.

An attorney for the American Center for Law and Justice who is working with a legal team representing Kline in a case filed by Planned Parenthood, said though it was rare for a judge to be subpoenaed to testify in a criminal case, he said he wasn’t sure it would set a bad precedent, as the attorney general’s office contended.

“I don’t see why if a judge has personal knowledge of a crime he can’t be subpoenaed like any other person,” said Ed White of the ACLJ. Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst, told National Review's Denis Boyles the same thing.

Oral arguments before the Supreme Court have not yet been scheduled.

• Six finally begins to comply with grand jury subpoena

On Friday of last week, the attorney general’s office, without fanfare, responded to a subpoena and supplied all records requested by a Wichita grand jury investigating Tiller two weeks ago.

“All the records they sought that were within the statute of limitations have been turned over,” said Ashley Anstaett, spokesperson for the attorney general’s office.

The grand jury, which must disband July 8, is still awaiting records from Tiller’s clinic.

Since a May 6 Supreme Court ruling that Tiller had to comply with the citizens’ grand jury subpoena for the documents, Tiller had provided only 14 of dozens of documents that had been subpoenaed.

Once again, they will be reviewed by an attorney and a physician appointed by the judge overseeing the grand jury to ensure they do not contain any information that would reveal the identity of an abortion recipient, then transferred to the grand jury.

The records have already been thoroughly redacted at least once. As Judge Anderson noted in a pre-trial hearing, "It is important to recognize that before any medical records were delivered to then Attorney General Kline on October 24, 2006, the Court, with the help of Special Counsel and two experienced physicians independently appointed by the Court, determined that no patient could be identified from the review of any medical file." 

Anderson's comments, contained in documents the Supreme Court first tried to seal but ultimately released, were made  "to controvert erroneous assertions made by Attorney General Morrison in his letter of June 25, 2007 and again in a legal pleading that the Court has 'original unredacted medical records' and to dispute Morrison's suggestion that the privacy of patients has been compromised. "

The slow responses to court orders by Six, Planned Parenthood, and Tiller have exasperated some pro-life activists.

Operation Rescue and other pro-life groups have accused Tiller of dragging his feet in complying with the subpoena, hoping that the grand jury will be forced to disband before it concludes its investigation.

“He [Tiller] is producing [the records] in a slow trickle,” said Cheryl Sullenger, senior policy analyst for Operation Rescue.

The grand jury has been extended once but it cannot be extended again.

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