Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has asked the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office to launch an investigation into the scandal surrounding the destruction of abortion records during the administration for former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

The destruction of the records led to a decision by a state judge yesterday to dismiss all 23 felony charges and 26 related misdemeanor charges against Planned Parenthood because the Kansas Health department (KDHE) destroyed the crucial records used as evidence in the case in 2005.

Although 58 of the misdemeanor charges for illegal late-term abortions remain to be prosecuted at a February hearing, Schmidt said late Wednesday that he has asked the Shawnee County sheriff to investigate and asked the county’s district attorney to handle any resulting case.

“’(Schmidt) wants a complete, separate investigation from an outside law enforcement agency,’ Sheriff Dick Barta said, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. ‘That’s why we were requested to do that.’”

During the hearing yesterday, District Attorney Steve Howe explained to Judge Stephen Tatum that former Attorney General Steve Six had destroyed the copies of Termination of Pregnancy (TOP) forms obtained through subpoena under former Attorney General Phill Kline. The destruction took place after Kline had filed the charges and while the case was under appeal. Howe indicated that the destruction of the evidence by Six “may have violated their own retention policy”...