Opinion ID: 2377101
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Further Proceedings Before Judge Anderson and This Court

Text: Before and after Kline and Morrison effectively traded prosecutorial offices on January 8, 2007, cooperation between their offices on the Inquisition and the evidence it had uncovered can be fairly described as nil. For example, Kline alleged that Morrison prevented Kline from having secure access and storage to the district attorney's office in Johnson County. In addition, on March 27, 2006, it was necessary for Judge Anderson to permit Morrison's office to make copies of the CHPP patient records in the Inquisition files in Judge Anderson's possession because Kline had left no copies behind in the Attorney General's office. By April 10, 2007, Judge Anderson summoned Veronica Dersch, one of the attorneys in Morrison's Attorney General's office, to a closed Inquisition conference on the record. He told her, among other things, that Kline and Maxwell had contacted him about obtaining additional information regarding CHPP in the Inquisition. He again expressed his opinion of Kline's evidence, this time on the need for a prosecutorial evaluation of its merit. He also said that he wanted to deal with only one prosecutorial office on the Inquisition. The next day, when Kline and several other representatives of the Johnson County District Attorney's office and several representatives of Morrison's Attorney General's office appeared before Judge Anderson for another closed Inquisition hearing, Judge Anderson again offered his opinion on Kline's legal theories. Despite his compliments to Kline, however, Judge Anderson stated that Morrison's office would control the Inquisition from that day on. He said to Kline: Let's make sure that we have an understanding from this point forward. I do not consider the inquisition to be owned by you. When you lost the election and there was a new administration that came on, my interpretation is that Attorney General Paul Morrison and his assistants are in control of the investigation.... .... They own the investigation now as the Kansas Attorney General. Judge Anderson nevertheless deferred ruling on a Morrison request to order Kline to return copies of CHPP patient records. Judge Anderson noted that Kline was free to launch a new inquisition in Johnson County, [b]ut that does not seem to be in the interests of justice to slow an investigation, to impair the ability to prosecute crimes. When Judge Anderson issued a formal ruling rejecting Morrison's request for return of Kline's copies of the CHPP patient records and other original investigative materials on April 18, 2007, he repeated his statements from the April 11 hearing. Given Kline's assertion that he had evidence to support his belief that crimes had been committed, Judge Anderson's Memorandum Decision said: The public interest would not be reasonably advanced and could even be impaired by ordering the return of medical records. Judge Anderson also rejected a similar request from CHPP on May 15, 2007, refusing to order Kline to return his copies of patient records to the clinic. CHPP then filed its sealed Comprehensive Health petition for writ of mandamus in this court against Kline on June 6, 2007. It was this mandamus action that focused on the irregularity of Kline's transfer of clinic patient records and other Inquisition files from himself as Attorney General to himself as Johnson County District Attorney. Large portions of the file in Comprehensive Health were eventually unsealed by this court by order dated May 2, 2008. Meanwhile, Morrison sent a clearance letter to CHPP counsel on June 25, 2007, stating that he had decided not to file charges against the clinic and that he was closing the Inquisition Kline had pursued. On July 9, 2007, Morrison filed a motion with Judge Anderson, seeking return of all Inquisition files in Judge Anderson's possession; and, on July 10, 2007, Morrison wrote to Judge Anderson, informing the judge that he was closing the Inquisition. Two days later, CHPP counsel Pedro Irigonegaray appeared unannounced at Judge Anderson's chambers, seeking surrender of the CHPP patient records in Judge Anderson's custody. Judge Anderson refused counsel's request. Judge Anderson then sent a letter to Morrison and Kline, dating it July 13, 2007. The letter formalized Judge Anderson's refusal to turn CHPP patient records over to CHPP counsel and his ruling against Morrison on the motion for return of patient records and other Inquisition files in the custody of Judge Anderson. The judge emphasized that any patient records in his possession were redacted and secure. He also said that collateral investigations regarding the management of the records were yet to be resolved. He apparently was referring to Comprehensive Health in this court and at least one investigation that had been initiated by the Disciplinary Administrator. Judge Anderson further stated that Kline had informed him that the investigation of CHPP continued in Johnson County, based on Kline's allegations that CHPP improperly redacted information from the patient records produced and that some records may have been fabricated. Judge Anderson said he had resisted opening a second inquisition for Kline in Shawnee County and had told Kline any allegations could be explained to another judge in Johnson County. Regardless, Judge Anderson wrote, he believed the records as originally produced by [CHPP] should be maintained by this Court until transferred to another Court having jurisdiction over any investigation and charges and/or until all collateral disputes and investigations have been resolved. In a second letter sent the same day to Morrison only, Judge Anderson also refused to surrender patient records from WHCS that were produced in the Inquisition. Five days later, Morrison filed a motion to intervene in Comprehensive Health in this court; his motion ultimately was granted. Morrison also filed his own sealed mandamus action against Judge Anderson in this court, Morrison v. Anderson, on August 2, 2007. Morrison argued that, given the Inquisition's closed status, Judge Anderson no longer had jurisdiction nor a reason to maintain court custody of documents the Inquisition had generated. (Large portions of the file in this case were eventually unsealed by this court by order dated May 2, 2008.) On September 25, 2007, after Morrison had been permitted to intervene in Comprehensive Health, Morrison filed a sealed Memorandum in Support of CHPP's petition accusing Kline of engaging in improprieties in the transfer of patient records from the Attorney General's office to the Johnson County District Attorney's office. The Appendix to the Memorandum included, among other items, a copy of Maxwell's Status and Disposition Report; transcripts of the April 10, 2007, Inquisition conference between Judge Anderson and Dersch as well as the April 11, 2007, Inquisition conference; Judge Anderson's April 18, 2007, Memorandum Decision; Judge Anderson's July 13, 2007, letter to Kline and Morrison; Judge Anderson's July 13, 2007, letter to Morrison alone; and a transcript of a deposition of Reed, which described Kline's transfer of clinic patient records to Johnson County. The filing of this Memorandum and Appendix led to this court's October 5, 2007, order in Comprehensive Health, providing that no further copying and/or dissemination of records obtained through subpoenas to the clinics during the time Kline had served as Attorney General could be effected without further order of this court. An exception was set forth for copying or dissemination as required for the pursuit of a law enforcement investigation or court proceeding.