The lawsuits against investigative journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) have taken an upsetting turn for the worse.
According to Daily Wire correspondent Phelim McAleer, Planned Parenthood’s pet judge William Orrick has ordered the jury to find Daleiden guilty of trespassing as they procured the damning video evidence that the abortion giant sells babies for obscene profits.
Daleiden had previously attempted to have Judge Orrick recused over his clear ties to Planned Parenthood, but to no avail.
“I have already determined that these defendants trespassed at each of these locations. Because I determined that these defendants trespassed, the law assumes that Planned Parenthood has been harmed and is entitled to an award of nominal damages such as one dollar for each trespass,” Orrick told the jury, referring to several conferences and clinics CMP associates visited in their investigation.
Orrick commanded the jury to accept his rulings and to only decide whether Planned Parenthood suffered harm from the trespass and what damages should be awarded.
As we’ve previously reported, Planned Parenthood originally sought at least $20 million in damages against Daleiden and CMP, but Orrick reduced the cap for damages to $600,000.
At the conclusion of the trial, Peter Breen, counsel for Daleiden and his colleagues, declared what the case is really about: private citizens having the courage to “cut through a curtain of silence and concealment.”
“They didn’t do it for profit or for personal gain. They did it for the paramount public purpose of letting Americans know and law enforcers investigate whether and to what extent our laws may have been violated. And they are not just any laws, but these are laws relating to homicide against born human beings, laws against the selling of body parts and organs of aborted human fetuses, and the laws against changing medical procedures without knowledge and consent to obtain more valuable fetal parts,” he told the jury.
To Planned Parenthood, Breen continued, the case is about “protecting the brand.”
“But what is it that hurt the brand? The very words spoken by Planned Parenthood personnel on those videos is what hurt the brand,” Breen declared, reminding jurors that Planned Parenthood never once recanted or disputed the content or the claims of CMP’s videos. “Now, Planned Parenthood could have tried to dispute this issue, but when push came to shove here at trial, a place where you need hard evidence to back up your claims, they had nothing. This is what so outraged the public. The true words of Planned Parenthood’s top abortion doctors and other personnel.”
“This is a case of undercover journalism. And we, the people, need that information. You need that information,” Breen concluded. “You may not like seeing that information. It may be difficult or whatever. But we don’t want to stop the flow of information.”
“Different people understanding they have different views about using undercover techniques where you have to misrepresent your identity and misrepresent why you’re there,” added Charles Limandri, another lawyer for CMP. “But if you’re doing it to save human lives and to stop the type of atrocities that we’re talking about here, it’s fully justifiable.”
Limandri then declared what any reasonable person can deduce from this entire ordeal—that the charges against CMP are merely an attempt by Planned Parenthood to “conceal criminal activity.”
“And they even want you to use a threat of punitive damages to stop them — stop anybody from ever being able to show — do that again. And they want to destroy these defendants, financially.”
The jury has retired to consider its verdict. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood continues its federal case against Sandra Merritt, demanding millions in punitive damages.
According to a case update from Liberty Counsel, that jury heard closing arguments from Harry Mihet in Merritt’s defense yesterday.
“We did hear several hours of Planned Parenthood’s closing argument today, and it was very tough to stomach. They repeatedly called our clients all kinds of evil and they asked the San Francisco jury to award millions of dollars in *punitive* damages against them, ‘to punish and deter them’ from ever exposing Planned Parenthood again,” Mihet wrote.
“And, as the number one reason for seeking punitive damages, they had the audacity to refer to Dr. Mary ‘Lamborghini-for-Livers’ Gatter, and Dr. Deborah ‘Crush-Above-and-Crush-Below’ Nucatola,” Mihet continued. “I’ve seen some really crazy things in the decade+ that I’ve been doing this work, but never have I seen such a brazen and shameful attempt to call evil good and good evil.”
Saints, it’s not looking good, but the fight isn’t over yet. Liberty Counsel and the Thomas More Society need our help in mounting this costly defense against Planned Parenthood’s vengeance.
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