State Court dodges KS Board of Healing Arts appeal of Neuhaus matter
by Kathy Ostrowski, KFL legislative director
Hon. Thomas Malone
A rotten district court ruling is too hot to handle and the proper court of review doesn't want to deal with it. Guess why? The revoked medical licensee is an abortionist.
In a technical legal dodge on Friday, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled that that it is too early for them to review an appeal by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts in the matter of abortionist Kris Neuhaus.
The Board revoked her license in July 2012, after a six day hearing under State Administrative Law Judge Edward Gashler in which he found that, "the care and treatment of 11 patients [obtaining late-term abortions by in 2003] was seriously jeopardized" by Neuhaus.
But that finding was blocked March 7, 2014 by Shawnee District Court Judge Franklin Theis, opining that the Board 'over-punished' Neuhaus for "being sloppy," taking "short cuts," and showing "inconsistent attention to proper protocols."
Days later, the Board appealed. Kansas Court of Appeals chief Judge Thomas Malone issued a 2-page order Friday, claiming Theis' order did not constitute a "final ruling" that they may review and that the Board had not yet reconsidered sanctions -as ordered by the district court. The Court of Appeals wants the Board to go away and follow Theis' order-but that order is exactly what the Board wants the higher court to reverse!
The Board is left with 3 legal options:
1. ask for reconsideration by the same Court of Appeals that doesn't want to do so,
2. ask the state Supreme Court for review of the Court of Appeals position,
3. go back in session to issue a revised sanction of Neuhaus.
Neuhaus' lawyers found arguably the best activist judge in the state to take review --Shawnee District Court Judge Franklin Theis. Theis' sympathies were revealed early on, when the state asked for a bond to recoup further court costs from Neuhaus and Theis said the appeal would proceed without any hope of repayment. He later ruled on the abortionist's behalf, "there is not sufficient proof to support the board's findings of 'professional incompetency'...based on Neuhaus' failure to maintain adequate records to support the diagnosis."
The inability to do proper patient intake was the subject of disciplinary action against Neuhaus from 1999-2001, when the Board labeled her, "a danger to the public". Unfortunately, the Board allowed her to keep her license, and she used it to rubberstamp "mental health" exemption referrals --onsite --for George Tiller, enabling him to proceed with post-viability abortions.
Concerning those notorious referrals, Judge Gashler's decision upholding the revocation included this:
"There is no indication that the Licensee [Neuhaus] on any occasion actually conversed with a patient concerning the items necessary for a competent mental health examination to be completed... In some cases, the patients were, according to the Licensee's diagnosis, suicidal. Yet, in not one single case did the Licensee make any recommendations that the patient be seen by a psychiatrist, a psychologist, or any other type of mental health worker. The Licensee simply referred each patient for a pregnancy termination."
The Kansas Board of Healing Arts needs to keep its new-found resolve to discipline dangerous abortionists, and challenge this new Court of Appeals ruling.
{Meanwhile corruption continues unabated in Kansas as former Johnson County prosecutor Phill Kline has had his law license indefinitely suspended by the same corrupt court system in the secret proceedings of the Kansas Supreme Court. The state and its politics are firmly in the hands of special interests and there are no ethics. - Ed}