FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AFTER VIDEOS SWORN AS TRUE, BIASED JUDGE DIRECTS PRO-PLANNED PARENTHOOD VERDICT
Top Planned Parenthood Witnesses Admitted At Trial Organization Sold Fetal Organs on Quid-Pro-Quo Basis, But Judge Orrick Blocked Jury From Hearing Video Conversations
Contact: Matille Thebolt, mthebolt@crcpublicrelations.com, 703.683.5004
SAN FRANCISCO, November 15–After a 6-week trial in which the Planned Parenthood-linked judge pre-determined the outcome on key claims, a jury of 10 rubber-stamped Planned Parenthood’s federal civil lawsuit against The Center for Medical Progress over the undercover video series showing senior-level Planned Parenthood leadership discussing the harvest and sale of aborted fetal organs and tissues.
“Justice was not done today in San Francisco. While top Planned Parenthood witnesses spent six weeks testifying under oath that the undercover videos are true and Planned Parenthood sold fetal organs on a quid pro quo basis, a biased judge with close Planned Parenthood ties spent six weeks influencing the jury with pre-determined rulings and suppressing the video evidence, all in order to rubber-stamp Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit attack on the First Amendment. This is a dangerous precedent for citizen journalism and First Amendment civil rights across the country, sending a message that speaking truth and facts to criticize the powerful is no longer protected by our institutions,” notes CMP project lead David Daleiden, one of the individual defendants in the case.
The retaliatory lawsuit against the publication of the undercover videos alleged fraud, trespass, breach of conduct, and eavesdropping as part of a conspiracy under the federal RICO act, and was brought by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and no less than 10 regional Planned Parenthood affiliates–including several subject to Congressional criminal referrals and ongoing federal investigation for their roles in fetal organ trafficking–against Daleiden, CMP undercover investigators Adrian Lopez and Sandra Merritt, CMP itself, its undercover subsidiary BioMax Procurement Services, LLC, and two early board directors.
Planned Parenthood was awarded nearly $470,000 in alleged security upgrade “damages” and $870,000 in punitive damages against the Defendants. Under RICO’s trebling provision, the total fee is nearly $2.3 million.
“Planned Parenthood made clear at trial that their so-called ‘security’ and ‘screening’ protocols before the videos were abysmal to non-existent,” Daleiden explains, “And now somehow they want to make us pay top-dollar for their own long-disregarded upgrades. The rigged verdict Judge Orrick was able to extract from the jury to feed Planned Parenthood’s media narrative is not the last word on this bogus hoax of a lawsuit.”
Although Planned Parenthood received the verdict it sought, the lawsuit and trial subjected the leader of the abortion industry to unprecedented scrutiny and the sworn testimony on the witness stand captured damning and incriminating admissions under oath:
- Planned Parenthood admitted in a stipulation that the undercover videos accurately recorded the words their leadership actually said.
- Emails from Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast abortion leadership in Houston, TX and testimony from PPGC abortion administrator Tram Nguyen revealed they wanted to “move forward” with a draft contract in which “BioMax Procurement Services” would pay PPGC $750 per fetal liver. Dr. Mary Gatter, former Planned Parenthood Los Angeles Medical Director, testified that PPLA was paid a set fee per fetal specimen. Both examples represent an illegal transaction where the volume of marketable fetal body parts is the quid pro quo.
- Leadership from PPFA’s Medical Services department testified they do not disagree with statements on the videos by former PPFA Senior Director of Medical Services Dr. Deborah Nucatola and former Planned Parenthood Orange & San Bernardino Counties Vice President Dr. Jennifer Russo about flipping fetuses in the womb to breech position in order to deliver them intact and harvest more marketable body parts, the hallmark of the criminal partial-birth abortion procedure. Dr. Nucatola testified she did not think there was anything wrong with what she described.
- The leadership of Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc. admitted they continue to harvest fetal organs and tissues at Planned Parenthood Pacific Southwest, and that they regularly receive intact fetuses for organ harvesting.
- Planned Parenthood witnesses failed to identify any of the information recorded in CMP’s videos as confidential or proprietary.
Harmeet Dhillon of Dhillon Law Group, representing Daleiden, CMP, and BioMax, states, “While we are disappointed in today’s verdict, we intend to pursue numerous issues on appeal. The jury worked with limited information and with a number of legal and factual outcomes predetermined by the Court. This verdict, if allowed to stand, seriously threatens the ability of undercover journalists – such as David Daleiden, Sandra Merritt, Adrian Lopez, and the ABC journalists in the 20/20 undercover video played in court showing Planned Parenthood’s involvement in fetal tissue trafficking 19 years ago – to document and expose illegal practices, such as Planned Parenthood’s illegal fetal tissue sales and abortion procedures. This verdict will not be the last word on these weighty factual, legal, and moral issues – like life, they are too important to leave undefended.”
“This lawsuit is payback for David Daleiden exposing Planned Parenthood’s dirty business of buying and selling fetal parts and organs,” adds Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society, representing Daleiden. “Rather than face up to its heinous doings, Planned Parenthood chose to persecute the person who exposed it. I am fully confident that when this case has run its course, justice will prevail, and David will be vindicated.”
“This case puts the constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech on trial. It tests the sacred tenet of freedom of the press,” explains Thomas More Society president Tom Brejcha. “Planned Parenthood decided that it was above the law. Planned Parenthood was wrong, and I am confident that we will win on appeal.”
“Planned Parenthood won a temporary victory today and obtained a jury verdict in their favor against David Daleiden and his co-defendants. The verdict is the natural product of Judge Orrick’s erroneous legal rulings,” remark Lead Trial Counsel Charles LiMandri and defense attorney Paul Jonna, of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, representing Daleiden, CMP, BioMax, and Adrian Lopez. “Ultimately, though, this verdict won’t stand. The court made too many mistakes and we have a tremendous record for appeal. We will continue to fight to protect the First Amendment and the rights of the unborn.”
###
Watch the videos at CenterforMedicalProgress.org
