Tiller has been charged with 19 counts of performing late-term abortions before the patients had received a required second opinion from a non-affiliated physician.

The case originated with former Attorney General Phill Kline, was passed on to Paul Morrison when he was elected into the Attorney General’s office, and is now in the hands of current Attorney General Stephen Six.  

Judge Clark Owens set Tiller’s trial date for March 2009, but a special hearing was granted to determine whether or not former state attorney generals Kline and Morrison acted within the law during their investigations on Tiller. 

Caleb Stegall, who represents Phill Kline along with some of Kline’s deputies, said Tiller's lawyer, Dan Monnat, had been vocalizing his frustrations throughout the court’s proceedings and that today was no exception. 

“Monnat is frustrated with his inability to impune the investigation and he does like to yell,” Stegall told Kansas Liberty. “But I don’t think that Monnat’s demonstrations in the courtroom are going to convince anyone of the substance of his claims.” 

Monnat did not return Kansas Liberty’s inquiry for comments.  

Much of today’s hearing revolved around the questioning of former investigator Tom Williams, assistant attorney general Eric Rucker, and Jared Reed an investigator who served in the attorney general’s office during Kline’s administration.  

Williams is the former investigator who worked for Kline and filed the affidavits that lead to the investigations at Tiller’s Wichita clinic as well as at an Overland Park Planned Parenthood. 

The Overland Park Planned Parenthood public relations office would not comment on the Tiller proceedings.   

Stegall said he felt Kline had been successful during the week’s hearings in proving that he acted lawfully during his investigation. 

“There has been an unprecedented level of scrutiny of Kline and his staff over the course of the investigation,” Stegall said. “But just as was true in the testimony taken before the Kansas Supreme Court, the upshot of factual testimony as it has been given is that Kline’s actions and the actions of his staff have been vindicated and in fact they have been vindicated in an overwhelming fashion.” 

- Holly Smith