Judge Won't Reinstate Abortion Charges

Departing Kansas Attorney General Appoints Special Prosecutor

Lee Thompson, left, and Dan Monnat, attorneys for physician George Tiller, take reporters' questions in their Wichita law office about the Kansas abortion case. (By Larry W. Smith -- Associated Press)

WICHITA, Dec. 27 -- A judge refused Wednesday to reinstate criminal charges against a Wichita abortion doctor, only hours after the outgoing attorney general named a special prosecutor to handle the case.

Last week, state Attorney General Phill Kline, a vocal abortion opponent, filed 30 charges against George Tiller, accusing him of performing 15 illegal late-term abortions in 2003 on patients ages 10 to 22 and not properly reporting details to the state.

Sedgwick County Judge Paul W. Clark dismissed the charges on jurisdictional grounds later the same day. Kline this week asked Clark to reinstate the charges, but the judge rejected that request during a hearing Wednesday.

Clark agreed with the Sedgwick County district attorney, who argued that Kline did not have authority to file the charges.

Kline criticized Clark's decision, saying neither the judge nor the district attorney had reviewed the evidence.

Kline, a Republican who was defeated for reelection in November, said he is turning over decisions about the case -- including whether to appeal Clark's latest ruling -- to the newly appointed special prosecutor: Don McKinney, a Democrat and brother of state House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney (D).

"This appointment of an independent special prosecutor will remove this investigation from a highly charged political process," Kline said.

Tiller's clinic, one of the few in the country to perform late-term abortions, has been a target of abortion opponents for decades. The clinic was bombed in 1985, and Tiller was shot in both arms by a protester in 1993.