Attorneys for pro-life advocate David Daliden, the man behind the expose’ videos catching Planned Parenthood selling the body parts of aborted babies, said the grand jury that indicted him got carried away and they expect Daleiden likely won’t be convicted on the bogus charges.
As LifeNews reported Monday, a Texas grand jury has ignored the videos exposing a Houston-based Planned Parenthood abortion clinic caught selling aborted baby body parts and has instead indicted the man behind producing the expose’ videos.
The Texas grand jury indicted David Daleiden and another pro-life activist, Sandra Merritt, behind the videos. Instead of prosecuting Planned Parenthood for selling aborted baby parts, Daleiden was indicted for buying them.
Daleiden and Merritt were charged with one felony related to tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to buying human tissue. The felony charge was in reference to the use of a fake ID. If convicted, Daleiden faces 20 years in prison while Planned Parenthood officials face no legal consequences for their actions.
SIGN THE PETITION: Drop the Charges Against David Daleiden and Charge Planned Parenthood
As Daleiden’s attorneys told the New York Times:
Jared Woodfill, a lawyer and the former chairman of the Harris County Republican Party, who was the spokesman for one of the main coalitions opposing the anti-discrimination ordinance, is part of the legal team representing David R. Daleiden, 27, and Sandra S. Merritt, 62, who were indicted by a grand jury here Monday on charges related to the use of fake IDs and offers to buy fetal tissue.
Mr. Woodfill and another lawyer representing Mr. Daleiden and Ms. Merritt, Terry W. Yates, called for another grand jury to look into Planned Parenthood’s actions.
“We believe that this is a runaway grand jury that has acted contrary to the law,” Mr. Woodfill said. “Instead of indicting the wrongdoers here, the organization trafficking in baby body parts, they’ve gone after the whistle-blower.”
“How many of us have used a fictitious driver’s license to buy beer?” Mr. Yates asked. “Can you imagine every kid that did that being charged with a second-degree felony? This grand jury has overreached.”
Mr. Yates and Mr. Woodfill did not deny that their clients had used fake IDs, but said their intent was not to defraud Planned Parenthood. “They were intending to expose the truth,” Mr. Woodfill said.
Moreover, Alexandra Snyder, the executive director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation, a pro-life legal group that is handling the lawsuit Planned Parenthood filed to try to stop Daleiden’s group from releasing more videos, says she and top legal experts don’t think Daleiden will be convicted on the overreaching charges.
“Indictments against David made good pro-abort headlines for a day. But legal experts think that, with a reasonable defense, there won’t be any convictions,” she said. “As Judge Andrew Napolitano points out, the crimes alleged are “crimes of intent”—and prosecutors can’t show any criminal intent on the part of journalists investigating a shady enterprise.”
She said the lawsuit and indictment “are designed to overwhelm David’s legal team. . . to make it absolutely impossible for him to stand up to the flood unleashed against him. It’s an old, old pro-abort strategy. Because the pro-aborts are practically swimming in oceans of money … they figure they can win court battles by outspending the pro-life side.”
Snyder said Planned Parenthood is thinking that the indictment will help it turn the tide of public opinion against the videos and its actions of selling aborted baby body parts.
“I can tell you what Planned Parenthood and the other pro-aborts are thinking right now,” she explained. “They’re thinking that they have finally got control of this whole video exposé problem. They’re thinking that the dirty tricks of their media buddies have finally carried the day, at least to some extent. And now they have turned the tables on the investigators! The pro-aborts are really proud of that.”
“If their actions against David Daleiden succeed, they will not only stop him: they’ll scare away anybody else who even thinks about standing up to them. In fact, they publicly declared that’s their purpose,” she concludes.
Meanwhile, in an interview with CNA, other attorneys for Daleiden insist that the use of a fake ID is protected under Texas law for citizen journalists engaging in the kind of undercover activities Daleiden and his team were conducting.
So what exactly are the charges Daleiden is facing from the grand jury? Pro-life attorney Katie Short, with the Life legal Defense Foundation, which is provided legal support for Daleiden and his team, informed LifeNews of what he is facing.
Short indicates the tampering charge has to do with the CMP investigators’ use of fake IDs to gain access to confidential meetings and events with top Planned Parenthood officials for the purposes of exposing their purchasing of aborted baby parts. This is the same charge that would be leveled at a minor who made or bought a fake ID to buy alcohol, except the minor would be breaking that law and David wasn’t engaging in an illegal activity with the fake ID.
“The tampering charge, which is a felony offense, is for the use of a California identification in order to enter the Planned Parenthood clinic for the purpose of investigation,” Short explained. “It is the same charge that would be leveled at a minor who used a fake ID to purchase alcohol. However, the law also provides a defense where the false information has ‘no effect on the government’s purpose for requiring the governmental record.”
“The charges filed against Daleiden and Merritt do not in any way diminish the overwhelming evidence obtained by the Center for Medical Progress showing that Planned Parenthood has engaged in and is more than willing to profit from the sale of fetal tissue,” Short goes on to say. “Life Legal continues to coordinate with David’s attorney in Texas and remains committed to his defense in the lawsuits filed against him by the National Abortion Federation, StemExpress, and Planned Parenthood.”
The charges elevated to felonies because the grand jury alleges the IDs were used “with intent to cause harm” to Planned Parenthood. Under Texas law, the charge carries a penalty of two to 20 years in prison.
As far as buying aborted baby body parts is concerned, Daleiden emailed Planned Parenthood asking to buy fetal tissue for $1,600. Whether Daleiden actually intended to buy the parts parts doesn’t matter in the eyes of Texas law, the grand jury contends.
Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson announced that Harris County’s investigation into the criminal conduct at Houston’s Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast has ended. Anderson said that the case is closed and that she has no further recourse.
Anderson has come under severe criticism since the indictment was released. She is facing criticism over her failure to prosecute an abortionist known as the Kermit Gosnell of Houston.
Anderson oversaw a previous abortion-related grand jury investigation of Houston abortionist Douglas Karpen after Operation Rescue released evidence in the form of photos and witness testimony that babies were being born alive during abortions and intentionally killed by twisting their necks. This case garnered publicity in the wake of the conviction of Pennsylvania abortionist Kermit Gosnell on three counts of First Degree Murder for intentionally killing babies born alive during abortions in a similar fashion.
That Anderson-led grand jury failed to indict Karpen despite the considerable evidence against him.
Karpen was represented at his trial by attorney Chip Lewis, who donated more than $25,000 to Anderson’s re-election campaign.
Anderson has come under considerably fire for what pro-life advocates call a politically motivated indictment and because a Planned Parenthood board member works for Anderson as an assistant district attorney. Lauren Reeder is a prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s criminal family law division. Reeder is listed as a non-compensated “Director” on the 990 Tax Form for 2014 filed by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.
Although Anderson indicates Reeder had no role in the Daleiden indictment, there’s really no way of knowing if that is truly the case. Because of that, pro-life advocates have called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into the indictment and the fact that the grand jury never voted on charges related to Planned Parethood’s sale of aborted babies.
The expose’ videos catching Planned Parenthood officials selling the body parts of aborted babies have shocked the nation. Here is a list of all eleven:
- In the first video: Dr. Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on baby-crushing: “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
- In the second video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Mary Gatter joked, “I want a Lamborghini” as she negotiated the best price for baby parts.
- In the third video: Holly O’Donnell, a former Stem Express employee who worked inside a Planned Parenthood clinic, detailed first-hand the unspeakable atrocities and how she fainted in horror over handling baby legs.
- In the fourth video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Savita Ginde stated, “We don’t want to do just a flat-fee (per baby) of like, $200. A per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.” She also laughed while looking at a plate of fetal kidneys that were “good to go.”
- In the fifth video: Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood-Gulf Coast in Houston boasted of Planned Parenthood’s skill in obtaining “intact fetal cadavers” and how her “research” department “contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here, you know we’re one of the largest affiliates, our Research Department is the largest in the United States.”
- In the sixth video: Holly O’Donnell described technicians taking fetal parts without patient consent: “There were times when they would just take what they wanted. And these mothers don’t know. And there’s no way they would know.”
- In the seventh and perhaps most disturbing video: Holly O’Donnell described the harvesting, or “procurement,” of organs from a nearly intact late-term fetus aborted at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda clinic in San Jose, CA. “‘You want to see something kind of cool,’” O’Donnell says her supervisor asked her. “And she just taps the heart, and it starts beating. And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus, and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.”
- In the eighth video: StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer admits Planned Parenthood sells “a lot of” fully intact aborted babies.
- The ninth video: catches a Planned Parenthood medical director discussing how the abortion company sells fully intact aborted babies — including one who “just fell out” of the womb.
- The 10th video: catches the nation’s biggest abortion business selling specific body parts — including the heart, eyes and “gonads” of unborn babies.The video also shows the shocking ways in which Planned Parenthood officials admit that they are breaking federal law by selling aborted baby body parts for profit.
- Unreleased Videos: Unreleased videos from CMP show Deb Vanderhei of Planned Parenthood caught on tape talking about how Planned Parenthood abortion business affiliates may “want to increase revenue [from selling baby parts] but we can’t stop them…” Another video has a woman talking about the “financial incentives” of selling aborted baby body parts.
- The 11th video: catches a texas Planned Parenthood abortionist planning to sell the intact heads of aborted babies for research. Amna Dermish is caught on tape describing an illegal partial-birth abortion procedure to terminate living, late-term unborn babies which she hopes will yield intact fetal heads for brain harvesting.
SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must Investigate Planned Parenthood for Selling Aborted Baby Parts
The full, unedited videos have confirmed that revelations that some aborted baby remains sold by Planned Parenthood go to biotech companies for the purpose of creating “humanized” mice. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood has been exposed as having sold body parts from aborted babies for as much as 15 years.
The federal law that technically prohibits the sale of aborted babies and their body parts was written by a pro-abortion Congressman decades ago and essentially spells out a process by which sellers of aborted baby body parts can meet certain criteria that allows the sales to be legal. That’s why a Colorado congressman has introduced legislation to totally ban the sales of aborted baby body parts.
