Kane to Change Hearing Ordered on Prosecutor's Firing

A lawyer for Attorney General Kathleen Kane said Saturday she will challenge a judge's order to explain whether her firing of a prosecutor violated a protective order not to retaliate against witnesses in an investigation into allegations her office leaked secret grand jury information.

Attorney Lanny Davis said in an email statement that Kane will challenge the judge's order that she appear for a hearing April 27 to explain prosecutor James Barker's firing in light of the protective order months ago.

The order from Montgomery County Judge William Carpenter came Friday, two days after Kane fired Barker, who had testified before the grand jury. Carpenter supervised the grand jury investigation and issued the protective order, which he originally sealed Sept. 17 but made public Friday.

Davis said Saturday that personnel decisions made by Kane were based on good faith judgments about improving the efficiency and competency of the office. He also said Kane will cooperate with the Montgomery County prosecutor's review of the grand jury investigation.

"As I have said before, I am confident that once that process is completed, the conclusion will be that Attorney General Kane has done nothing wrong," Davis said.

The grand jury recommended in December that Kane be charged with criminal contempt, perjury, obstruction, false swearing and official oppression stemming from allegations that her office gave secret investigative material to a newspaper last year. Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman is looking into its findings, and Kane has not been charged with any crime and has maintained she is not guilty of leaking secret information.

Carpenter set the April hearing for Kane and Thomas Carluccio, the special prosecutor in the grand jury investigation, to appear before him and two other judges. If the panel decides that the protective order was violated, a hearing would be held to determine whether to impose a contempt of court punishment, according to Friday's order.

Barker has declined to discuss his testimony. He was abruptly fired Wednesday after six years at the attorney general's office, where he was in charge of the office's criminal appeals cases and grand juries. He said he was given no reason for his firing.