Ministers push to get Tiller charged

BY JOE RODRIGUEZ

The Wichita Eagle

About 40 Wichita-area religious leaders asked the public Thursday to demand that George Tiller be charged with performing what they called illegal late-term abortions.

They urged people to contact Kansas legislators and ask them to have Attorney General Paul Morrison charge Tiller.

"Our plan is to get out this message and hopefully, law-abiding, God-fearing citizens that have been elected will pick up this mantle and, of their choosing, decide to do something about it," said Pastor Rob Rotola of Word of Life Church during a news conference attended by former Attorney General Phill Kline at a north Wichita hotel.

Responding to the ministers' efforts, Dan Monnat, an attorney for Tiller, said "nothing more than a political prosecution is being sought here.

"Charging decisions should be left to the professional prosecutors we entrust them to," he said.

Shortly before Kline left office last year, he alleged that Tiller performed 15 late-term abortions on patients ages 10 to 22 and failed to properly report the details to state health officials. Kline filed 30 misdemeanor charges in Sedgwick County, but District Attorney Nola Foulston contended he did not have jurisdiction to do so. Sedgwick County Judge Paul Clark agreed, and the charges were dismissed.

In January, a special prosecutor appointed by Kline asked the Kansas Supreme Court to reinstate the charges. In February, at Morrison's urging, the court dismissed the request.

Morrison spokeswoman Ashley Anstaett said the attorney general's office is investigating Tiller. "We've been saying it all along that we're looking at it, and if there are crimes, of course we'll prosecute."

In making their plea to the public, the religious leaders cited a Kansas law that says the attorney general shall appear for the state "when required by the governor or either branch of the legislature."

In Topeka, Rep. Lance Kinzer, an anti-abortion lawmaker, said he is unaware of any effort to get the Legislature to pass a resolution directing the attorney general to bring charges. But he thinks it would have little practical effect.

"I don't think we have any control over the management of the case," said Kinzer, R-Olathe. "We can't control how he pursues the case."

Before the news conference, Kline met with the ministers at their invitation, he said.

"They asked me to kind of give them a feel for the issues that they face," he said, "and I shared with them what I could publicly about it, the charges against Mr. Tiller and the nature of the investigation and the law and so forth."

Contributing: Associated Press
Reach Joe Rodriguez at 316-268-6644 or jrodriguez@wichitaeagle.com.