The legal odyssey between Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline and Planned Parenthood continued Wednesday, when an attorney for Kline announced that a motion had been filed with the Kansas Supreme Court seeking dismissal of a Planned Parenthood action against Kline.

Planned Parenthood filed the action last year, seeking the return of records legally obtained by Kline for use in a 107-count criminal case he filed against the abortion provider. Planned Parenthood is charged with making "false writings" - a felony -  and performing illegal late-term abortions.

Kline’s lawyer, Caleb Stegall, said during a press conference that oral arguments in the case were scheduled to be heard June 12.

The gist of the case was summarized in the opening paragraph of the motion:

“Petitioner, a criminal defendant in a pending criminal proceeding, is asking this Court to strip the prosecutor in that action of evidence lawfully obtained and, essentially, give that evidence back to the criminal defendant. In an unprecedented attack on executive authority and prosecutorial discretion, not to mention on the ordinary rules of criminal procedure, Petitioner has been allowed to sue its prosecutor after failing to obtain the desired relief through the normal procedures afforded every criminal defendant.”

Stegall said that if criminal defendants were routinely granted by courts the ability to retrieve evidence from prosecutors that could be used against them, “then there wouldn’t be any prosecutions.”

The motion included attachments of heavily-redacted records that are at the center of the case. Kline’s criminal case against Planned Parenthood will contend that the records, called "reports of termination," were "manufactured" by Planned Parenthood in an effort to deceive a judge into believing they were kept on file in the organization’s office, as required by law.

When Kline subpoenaed the records during his term as Kansas Attorney General, Planned Parenthood did not initially provide them to Judge Anderson, who was overseeing Kline’s inquisition. When Anderson persisted, Planned Parenthood provided what they claimed were copies of the reports.

However, a review of the redacted records demonstrates the same conclusion reached by Judge Anderson – that the documents do not match up. For example, the handwriting on a bonafide copy differs from the handwriting on a copy supplied to Judge Anderson by Planned Parenthood.

In a press release distributed to reporters, Stegall stated: “The integrity of our judicial system and the rule of law requires that people not lie to judges. Manufacturing documents in order to cover up crimes strikes at the core of the American system of evidence.”

Stegall scoffed at claims made by Planned Parenthood that they never meant to infer that the documents they supplied were photocopies. Rather, they now contend that the copies had been hand-produced by staffers.

Stegall said if Planned Parenthood wanted to present to a jury the notion that rather than using a copier, they had “a team of monks squirreled away in their basement copying records,” they were welcome to do so.

Planned Parenthood is expected to respond to Kline’s motion with a motion of its own.

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