Court Dismisses Bogus Charges Against David Daleiden for Exposing Planned Parenthood

By Steven Ertelt
Life News

In a huge victory, a California court today dismissed almost all of the criminal charges abortion activists filed against the pro-life advocates who recorded undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood selling the body parts from aborted babies.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed 15 felony charges against both David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Becerra is a longtime abortion advocate with financial connections to the Planned Parenthood abortion company that the two pro-life Advocates exposed in the videos for selling body parts such as fetal brains and livers.

At the time, pro-life advocates said Becerra’s 15 felony charges were bogus charges meant to belittle the expose’ campaign and to cast aspersions on Daleiden and the organization behind the videos. They said the attempt was about drawing attention away from Planned Parenthood’s sales of aborted baby parts.

The San Francisco Superior Court on Wednesday dismissed 14 of 15 criminal counts but the pair are still charged with one count of conspiracy to invade privacy. However the court dismissed the charges with leave to amend — meaning Becerra could re-file the charges with additional supposed evidence against the pair.

The court ruled that counts 1-14 were legally insufficient. The state has the opportunity to amend if it can plead a more legally sufficient and specific complaint. The California’s Attorney General filed 15 criminal counts against Merritt, with counts 1-14 for each of the alleged interviews and count 15 for an alleged conspiracy. San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Christopher Hite gave the state attorney general’s office until mid-July to file a revised complaint.

In a statement to LifeNews, pro-life attorney Mat Svaer of LibertyCounsel, representing Merritt, said, “This is a huge victory to have 14 criminal counts dismissed.”

“We will now turn our attention to dismissing the final count. Sandra Merritt did nothing wrong. The complaint by the California Attorney General is unprecedented and frankly will threaten every journalist who provides valuable information to the public. This final count will also fall,” said Staver.

Liberty Counsel argued that the criminal complaint for illegally recording supposedly “private” conversations (in restaurants, hotel lobbies and other public places) – the first ever filed against undercover journalists – was legally deficient for numerous reasons, not the least of which was the Attorney General’s decision to prosecute Merritt in secret proceedings, without identifying even the names of her accusers or purported “victims.” 

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Daleiden Charges: And the Arrest Is History

Family Research Council

If abortion groups are trying to keep a low profile, they're not doing a very good job of it. While Congress debates whether taxpayers should fund the likes of Planned Parenthood, the industry has spent the last six months trying to avoid headlines. That will be impossible now, thanks to a federal judge who's threatening to send the man responsible for exposing the grisly business to jail.

At issue now is whether Daleiden's team violated the court's order by posting new footage of clinic workers talking about the grisly details of abortion (and an admission that they sometimes "[alter the procedure for financial gain"]. 

BuzzFeed insists the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) is in serious hot water now, having "flouted multiple injunctions and court-issued seals by posting more shocking videos of abortion providers and identifying 14 of the John/Jane Does participating in the state criminal complaint against him and his recording partner Sandra Merritt. Those names were previously under a court seal." If the court holds Daleiden in contempt for going public with the tapes, it could be "punishable by fines, jail time and disbarment for the attorneys involved."

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is doing his best to make that pain a reality. Together with the National Abortion Federation, the state's top law enforcer is pushing for the maximum penalty against the Daleiden's team. And with Planned Parenthood's PAC on his donor rolls, it's no wonder why. 

"Before becoming the current attorney general," RedState points out, "Becerra was a state representative and over years received thousands in donations from PPFA." That investment is paying off handsomely for the abortion industry, which has watched with satisfaction as the courts and AG's office work overtime to protect their pals from investigations like David's.

The pro-lifer was already in an uphill climb against federal Judge William Orrick, who's responsible for putting the videos under lock and key to begin with. And according to records, Orrick has some interesting political connections of his own. 

Not only was he appointed by President Obama but as documents show, raised $200,000 for Obama's campaign. So much for impartiality! This is the same judge who -- despite an independent forensic report -- insisted, "[CMP's projects] thus far have not been pieces of journalistic integrity, but misleadingly edited videos and unfounded assertions." 

That intimidation continued with Orrick's warning: "Mr. Daleiden better be well advised by his lawyers ... that he is obligated to follow the Court's orders and not try to skate around them and cause real harm to human beings and [legally] to himself."

Of course, the tragic irony is that real harm is already being done to human beings. And not by David Daleiden! If his work has proven anything, it's who the real culprits are. To the pro-life movement, David is a hero, who's put an exclamation point on taxpayers' insistence that Congress defund these groups. 

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