Journalists Were Charged With 15 Felonies For Exposing Planned Parenthood In Undercover Videos. Here's The Latest.
On Friday, the California Supreme Court issued a stay in the case against journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt based on “political bias and selective prosecution.”
Attorneys from the Thomas More Society, which is representing Daleiden, “learned that the California Supreme Court issued a stay for The People of the State of California v. David Robert Daleiden and Sandra Susan Merritt,” a statement from TC Public Relations’ Thomas Ciesielka said. “The court hearing that was to start today has been suspended until further notice from the California Supreme Court.”
California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye handed down the decision on Friday, the statement sent to The Daily Wire continued. “It halted just before it was to begin, a two-week preliminary hearing in the 15-count criminal felony prosecution of David Daleiden and Sandra Susan Merritt.”
“The stay was based on the political bias and selective prosecution,” Ciesielka added.
In 2015, Daleiden and Merritt, working for the Center for Medical Progress, exposed taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood’s dubious dealings with StemExpress, a company giving the abortion giant money in exchange for parts of aborted babies, via a series of undercover videos.
The horrifying videos took the country by storm, shining a light on what abortion actually looks like and how callous Planned Parenthood executives were apparently selling the baby body parts for money, which is illegal. Planned Parenthood claimed they are merely being reimbursed for the costs of prepping and transferring the body parts, though undercover footage seems to contradict this. StemExpress has since cut ties with the massive abortion company.
Daleiden and Merritt were stunningly handed down 15 felony charges in March of 2017 for their undercover work. The charges were widely derided as a threat to journalists, including by the extremely left-wing Los Angeles Times. “Felony charges are a disturbing overreach for the duo behind the Planned Parenthood sting videos,” a headline for the outlet declared.
As noted by the Christian Post, “Daleiden and Merritt were charged with filming 14 people without permission between October 2013 and July 2015. There was one felony count filed per person along with a fifteenth count for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy.”
"Daleiden, along with co-conspirator Sandra Merritt, used manufactured identities and a fictitious bioresearch company to meet women's healthcare providers and covertly record the private discussions they initiated," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra claimed.
"The right to privacy is a cornerstone of California's Constitution, and a right that is foundational in a free democratic society … We will not tolerate the criminal recording of confidential conversations,” the AG added.
After the charges were handed down, Daleiden countered: “The public knows the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners like StemExpress and DV Biologics — currently being prosecuted in California — who have harvested and sold aborted baby body parts for profit for years in direct violation of state and federal law.”
In January, it was determined by a federal appellate court that videos from the Center for Medical Progress are not “deceptively edited,” as loudly claimed by abortion activists ad nauseam.
“[W]hen Leftists or Planned Parenthood defenders next cry foul that the Center for Medical Progress's videos are ‘deceptively edited,’ CMP’s defenders can respond with, ‘actually, a federal appellate court concluded they were not,’” posted The Daily Wire’s Josh Hammer.
This is quite a ruling out of the Fifth Circuit tonight, but pay special attention to footnote 6 on p. 10.
Judge Jones & Judge Jolly are endorsing the view that the Center for Medical Progress’s videos are *NOT* “deceptively edited.” drive.google.com/file/d/1D8GgST…
Put another way, when Leftists or Planned Parenthood defenders next cry foul that the Center for Medical Progress's videos are “deceptively edited,” CMP’s defenders can respond with, "actually, a federal appellate court concluded they were not."
