Stephen Maxwell, winner of 2006 County and District Attorney's Prosecutor of the Year Award in 2006

Topeka.  Kansas Supreme Court information officer Ron Keefover today released an ethics complaint against Stephen Maxwell signed by Stanton Hazlett, the Administrator for the Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys.

The complaint was a result of investigations led by former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, later Johnson County District Attorney, into violations of Kansas law by abortion providers.

In part, the complaint said:

The Respondent knowingly failed to disclose legal opinions and law review articles related to Mr. Kline’s 2003, interpretation of K.S.A. 38-1522 to the Grand Jury [in Johnson County] in an effort to prevent the Grand Jury from discovering the legal history of that statute and its interpretation by the federal courts.

Read the compliant:

Kansas Board of Discipline for Attorneys Formal Complaint In the Matter of Stephen Maxwell –

The hearing is scheduled for Feb. 17-18, 2010 in the Board of Discipline Courtroom in Topeka.

Maxwell served both as Sr. Assitant Attorney General and Sr. Johnson County Deputy District Attorney under Phill Kline.  Maxwell currently works in the Reno County District Attorney’s Office.

In 2006 Maxwell received the praise of his peers when he won the the County and District Attorney’s Prosecutor of the Year Award.

Keefover declined any comment about when or if similar complaints might be filed against former Attornery General Phill Kline, or his other assistant, Eric Rucker.