TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A northeast Kansas prosecutor says he won’t file criminal charges over the state’s destruction of abortion records, an issue that had overshadowed a criminal case against a Planned Parenthood clinic.
Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor said Friday that no records related to Planned Parenthood were destroyed by the Kansas attorney general’s office when it shredded abortion-related files.
Taylor said the destruction occurred in April 2009.
In Johnson County, District Attorney Steve Howe had told a judge that the attorney general’s office had destroyed records that could be evidence in the Planned Parenthood case in April 2009. That led a judge in November to dismiss 49 of 107 criminal charges against a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park.
Howe did not respond immediately to a telephone message seeking comment.