Prairie State Wire

In California, defense lawyers representing pro-life activist David Daleiden and his associate, Sandra Merritt, both with the Center for Medical Progress, are whittling away at criminal charges against them initiated by past California Attorney General and now Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris, on behalf of Planned Parenthood.

In the latest move for the defense, lawyers with the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based public interest law firm, filed a petition with the California Court of Appeal on August 12 asking that it dismiss nine of ten remaining charges against Daleiden and Merritt. Working as undercover reporters, the pair exposed Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the trafficking of aborted baby parts. 

A request to dismiss a 10th charge is being considered in a separate proceeding.

Pro-life activist David Daleiden | File photo

Thomas More Society Vice President and Senior Counsel Peter Breen says the defense team they will pursue the case all the way to the state Supreme Court, if required, to defeat “politically motivated” charges against those acting in good faith.

“This case should not be going forward,” Breen told Prairie State Wire.

The charges, among other things, allege a violation of California’s eavesdropping law with the release of recordings Daleiden and Merritt made working as undercover journalists – one of which captures Planned Parenthood executives negotiating the prices of aborted baby body parts. Some of the videos were recorded at the 2014 and 2015 National Abortion Federation’s convention and trade shows.

Last December, Judge Christopher Hite of the San Francisco Superior Court, after a preliminary hearing, dropped six of the fifteen charges brought in March 2017 by Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who succeeded Harris. Hite ruled that the charges did not meet the burden of showing probable cause.

Then on July 28, Judge Suzanne Bolanos of the San Francisco Superior Court consolidated two of the eavesdropping charges and dropped a separate one against Merritt. The August 12 filing – the petition for writ of prohibition – is in response to that ruling, and is another attempt by Thomas More lawyers to get the charges dropped before the cases go to trial. 

In the petition, the lawyers characterize a 2016 search warrant that Harris obtained to seize Daleiden’s property as a “favor” to Planned Parenthood.

“Voluminous evidence was provided to the magistrate that the search warrant was not brought in good faith but was obtained in conjunction with Planned Parenthood attorneys as a political favor to Planned Parenthood to round up Mr. Daleiden’s work product,” the petition stated. “Of particular note is a request from Beth Parker, Planned Parenthood’s chief counsel, to AG investigators that ‘Planned Parenthood would like the computers used to produce the videos seized.’”

Becerra is a friend to the abortion industry – while a member of Congress, he received a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America.

As one example that the charges have no merit, Breen cited an exception in California’s eavesdropping law that allows secret recordings if the person “reasonably believes” the recording will show evidence of certain crimes, one of them being felony violence. Daleiden had every reason to believe that there was violence committed against not only babies but women as well, Breen said.

“There was no rebuttal from prosecution when we presented two expert witnesses before Judge Hite that organs, including hearts, are being harvested from live babies after failed abortions,” Breen said. “Or in some instance babies are purposely delivered alive so the organs can be harvested.”

Another charge, that of Daleiden and Merritt using fake IDs, was brought well past the statute of limitations, Breen said. That dismissal request is before Judge Hite. 

If prosecuted, the defendants would be the first people in the state to suffer that fate for undercover video reporting.

“It’s all another case of abortion distortion,” Breen said. “Twisting the law is a dangerous way to protect Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry.”