Civil trial against Center for Medical Progress investigators begins
The civil trial against Center for Medical Progress is set to begin today with jury selection followed by opening statements from both sides tomorrow, October 3, at the San Francisco Federal Courthouse. It could last as long as eight weeks.
This case invovles a 15-count civil suit filed by Planned Parenthood against the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), CMP’s undercover subsidiary BioMax Procurement Services, LLC, two former CMP Board Directors including Operation Rescue president Troy Newman, along with investigators Adrian Lopez, Sandra Merritt, and David Daleiden. Planned Parenthood is attempting to discredit and silence these groups and individuals and is seeking $16 million from the defendants for exposing the trafficking of the body parts of aborted children.
There are no criminal penalties with this civil case but Planned Parenthood is claiming that CMP violated the “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations” (RICO) law when CMP investigators went undercover at Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation meetings in order to expose the sale of baby body parts. CMP began releasing videos, including of those meetings, in 2015, and Planned Parenthood immediately attempted to discredit CMP.
“This trial will reveal the truth that Sandra Merritt did nothing wrong,” said Merritt’s attorney and Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver. “In fact, the evidence will show that Planned Parenthood is abusing the law in a desperate attempt to hide its hideous business of selling baby body parts. The Supreme Court has ruled that RICO cannot be used to silence free speech and that is precisely what Planned Parenthood is seeking to accomplish.”
We will be reporting live via twitter.
Who: Planned Parenthood vs. Center for Medical Progress
What: Civil Trial in Federal Court
When: October 3 – November 8, starting at 8 a.m.
Where: 450 Golden Gate Ave
San Francisco, CA 94102
Courtroom 2 on the 17th floor
According to Daleiden, the first witnesses in the trial will likely begin testifying on Thursday, October 4, beginning with Melissa Fowler from the National Abortion Federation. Fowler recently testifed in the premilinary hearing against Daleiden and Merritt regarding the 15 counts of felony invasion of privacy against them.
Jenna Tosh, CEO of Planned Parenthood California Central Coast, will testify next week, along with Lopez and Merritt.
The result of the three-week preliminary hearing regarding the criminal charges against CMP which took place in September is expected to be announced by Judge Christoper Hite on October 22 at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time. During that hearing, it was revealed by certain witnesses the possibility that babies are born alive in order for their organs to be harvested and that abortionists at Planned Parenthood were in the practice of altering abortion methods in order to get “intact” babies. This implies that these abortionists were using the illegal partial-birth abortion method in order to acheive that goal.
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