Morrison’s Mistress

Linda Carter summoned her inner circle to her fifth-floor office in the Johnson County Courthouse. It was fall 2006, and Carter was the director of administration for then-District Attorney Paul Morrison. She wanted to play show and tell with her girlfriends — Brenda Albright, Shawna Chambless, Shelly Hartman and Stacey Trumbly. They all reported to Carter. They were also supervisors in the District Attorney's Office.

Carter named her group of gossip girls the Doll Club. She came up with the name after seeing a production of Valley of the Dolls in December 2005 during a girls' night out at the now-defunct Late Night Theatre. Being a member of the Doll Club meant asylum from the often-vindictive Carter, but it also meant putting up with her antics.

Carter shut and locked her office door. To build anticipation, she told the Doll Club to look away. The women turned their backs to her.

Carter slipped her panties down below her skirt. Her lacy lingerie hung around her knees. The women turned around to gaze at Carter's new pink thong.

A former Doll Club member recalls the reactions of the others. Trumbly was uncomfortable. Hartman was mortified. Chambless and Albright were grossed out.

Carter was pleased.

"It was pretty, but I didn't want to see her underwear," a former Doll Club member tells The Pitch. "I had work to do. I didn't want to screw around."

By the time of Carter's panty drop, screwing around was common in the district attorney's office.

Carter, in her 50s and married with three children, wore her blond hair big, with teased bangs, and she charmed people with her Southern drawl. During the workday, she frequently pulled her employees into her office to talk about sex. Carter fancied herself a Southern belle, though her tongue was more Howard Stern than Blanche DuBois.

Carter was also in the midst of an extramarital affair with her boss. Carter's affair with Morrison began in September 2005 in an empty office on the sixth floor of the courthouse and lasted two years. Morrison was a tough, unforgiving prosecutor, a workaholic who locked up serial killers Richard Grissom and John Edward Robinson. And on November 7, 2006, Morrison defeated Phill Kline and became Kansas attorney general.

A year later, Carter told her new boss, District Attorney Phill Kline, about the affair with Morrison. She claimed that Morrison tried to blackmail her and wanted her to give him information on Kline's investigation of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. With Kline threatening a criminal investigation, Morrison resigned in disgrace.

The Pitch spoke with 21 of Carter's friends and colleagues, who detailed for the first time the story of Linda Carter, the woman obsessed with ruling the DA's Office. Morrison and Carter wouldn't go on the record for this story, but their former colleagues say Carter lusted for power and, when Morrison gave it to her, abused it. They say Morrison allowed Carter to divide and conquer his office by creating dissent among supervisors and support staff.

The former employees say Morrison's run for Kansas attorney general distracted him from the duties of his office. Morrison still carried a caseload, but he left the office under Carter's control. In his absence, she crushed the atmosphere of camaraderie and cooperation.

When Morrison was confronted with the problems, he dismissed them as cattiness. An abusive, threatening environment developed. Carter created a sexually charged workplace that would have gotten others in the office accused of sexual harassment or fired.

"All of these people worked their butts off for Paul Morrison," a former supervisor says, "and we got screwed."

"Paul let Linda run amok," a former member of the support staff says.

A former juvenile-support-staff supervisor tells The Pitch that she confronted Morrison. "She is going to destroy your office," the supervisor told him. Morrison ignored her. Little did Morrison know that Carter would also destroy his political career and nearly wreck his marriage.

In August 1987, Linda Carter became executive director of the Marysville, Kansas, Chamber of Commerce. She also headed the Marysville Travel and Tourism Bureau. And across town, her husband, John Carter, was Marysville's city administrator.

It all ended in April 1989. According to the Marysville Advocate, Carter resigned her positions, citing unspecified "controversies and criticisms." Carter wrote in her resignation letter that her job was "terribly incompatible" with her husband's.

"It's difficult for other people to separate the two positions," Linda Carter wrote. "People expect you to be so perfect."

The Carters left Kansas in 1989 for McCook, Nebraska. They moved again in December 1995 to Johnson County. John Carter became the first city administrator of Roeland Park, and Linda Carter took a job in March 1996 at the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office. As a part-time secretary, she made $8.19 an hour.

Linda Carter seemed to find her niche. In December 1997, Morrison promoted her to a part-time victim advocate in the property crime unit. Carter excelled in the role, and her co-workers liked her. In July 1999, Morrison hired Carter full time as a victim witness coordinator, and they began working together on criminal cases.

In mid-2000, the director of administration quit. Carter lobbied for the job, calling on her friend Joyce Morrison, Paul Morrison's wife. Joyce Morrison encouraged her husband to hire Carter as director of administration. Morrison hired Carter on January 21, 2001. The District Attorney's Office had grown bigger than Morrison could handle alone. He needed to delegate some of his authority, and Carter became his gatekeeper.