Judge orders clinic records

A Kansas abortion clinic owner must turn over employee records to a grand jury, a judge has ruled.

In a rare open court hearing Thursday, retired Sedgwick County District Judge Paul Buchanan heard arguments about whether a grand jury can obtain employee records from the Women’s Health Care Services in Wichita. The grand jury is investigating whether the clinic, run by Dr. George Tiller, broke state laws regarding late-term abortions.

Lee Thompson and Laura Shaneyfelt, attorneys for Dr. Tiller, asked the judge to reject the grand jury’s request for clinic employee records.

“It is one thing to ask questions but [it’s] far different and far more invasive … to turn over files to a group of unregulated and untrained citizens,” Ms. Shaneyfelt argued, according to KAKE-10, an ABC TV news affiliate.

The prosecutor, however, said the grand jury was within its rights to subpoena such records. “This is designed to allow … a grand jury to better understand the information they are asking for,” Ann Swegle, deputy district attorney in Sedgwick County, told KAKE-10.

Judge Buchanan ruled that Dr. Tiller must provide the records to the grand jury. No date was set for compliance, but the grand jury, which works in secret, has until early April to complete its investigation.

The Tiller grand jury is one of two abortion clinic investigations initiated last year by citizen petition drives. In Johnson County, home to a major Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park, pro-life groups collected thousands of signatures asking for a grand jury investigation into its late-term abortion practices. Dr. Tiller’s clinic was similarly targeted by pro-life groups in Sedgwick County.

Abortion clinic attorneys fought all the way to the Kansas Supreme Court to stop the grand juries, saying the investigations were essentially witch hunts. However, the high court ruled that the grand juries could proceed.

The Johnson County grand jury started Dec. 10 and is led by District Attorney Phill Kline. The Tiller grand jury started Jan. 8. It has 90 days to decide whether to issue any indictments.

Separately, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, has named Douglas County District Judge Stephen N. Six to replace disgraced Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison, who is scheduled to leave office Thursday.

Mr. Morrison, who is pro-choice, resigned in December amid a sex scandal involving Linda Carter, a former employee in the Johnson County district attorney’s office.

Mrs. Carter filed sexual harassment charges against Mr. Morrison with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in November. One of her complaints is that Mr. Morrison pressured her to give him private updates about an investigation into the Overland Park Planned Parenthood clinic.