The State of California reached an agreement with Provida activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt this week, after a criminal process of one year against the two journalists.
State prosecutors began investigation after the publication of a series of undercover videos that seemed to involve Planned Parenthood officials and the National Federation of Abortion in the illegal sale of unborn babies.
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On Monday, Daleiden and Merritt declared themselves “without opposition” to an illegal recording charge of confidential communication in exchange for the retirement of several charges for serious crimes.
As part of the agreement, Daleiden and Merritt will not receive “imprisonment, or fines, or admission of irregularities, or probation”, according to a announcement From Monday of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), a provida group founded and directed by Daleiden.
According to the CMP, the terms of the agreement result in the couple will face “zero punishment.”
“The new statement of ‘non -challenge’ – which cannot be used adversely – will be incorporated into the trial as a minor crime in six to twelve months and then becomes a statement of ‘non -guilty’, will be dismissed and eliminated” Said the CMP in a statement.
Daleiden welcomed this week’s agreement as a “great victory” and said he plans to continue his provide work.
“After supporting nine years of hard political persecution, ending the legal war initiated by Kamala Harris is a great victory for my research reports and for the public’s right to know the truth about the sale of parts of the body of aborted babies On the part of Planned Parenthood, ”said Daleiden in a statement on Monday.
“Now we must all get to work to protect families and babies from the industrial criminal complex of abortion,” Daleiden encouraged.
When the CMP published in 2015 Incriminatory videos They showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of babies body parts, California officials began research on Daleiden and Merritt.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris – then the Attorney General of California – met with Planned Parenthood staff before ordering criminal investigations on Merritt and Daleiden, including a raid in Daleiden’s house.
The following Attorney General of California, Xavier Becerra (which later became director of the Department of Health and Human Services under the administration of Biden), accused both of 14 serious crimes for illegally recording a conversation and a serious crime for criminal conspiracy.
In 2019, a California judge ruled that only nine of the 15 positions could be brought to trial. The case never came to trial due to delays.
In a separated civil case in 2019, a federal jury gave Planned Parenthood more than 2 million dollars for damages. Daleiden and Merritt appealed before the ninth circuit, which confirmed the jury’s conclusions.
Steve Cooley, the former District of the Los Angeles County and directed by Daleiden’s legal defense team, described the “Avengative” Prosecutor’s Office.
“In my five decades as a lawyer, 40 years of them as a prosecutor, I have never seen such a shameless exercise of selective investigation and vindictive processing,” Cooley lamented in a statement on January 27.
“California General Prosecutors who began this case and carried it forward for almost 10 years should be ashamed for using their position as a weapon to persecute people who were simply exposing the illegality associated with the collection and sale of parts of the body of fetuses” said Daleiden’s lawyer.
Although they give and Merritt They were not convicted or convictedthe state of California declared on Tuesday that the Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta, won a “sentence for serious crime” by Daleiden and Merritt.
Attorney General Bonta pointed out in a communication of press of January 28 that his “office is achieving criminal convictions to ensure that Californians can exercise their constitutional rights to reproductive health care.”
But Daleiden said that this statement is a misrepresentation of the case.
“The press release of the attorney general misrepresent our agreement,” Daleiden said to CNA, an agency in Ewtn News. “The judge explicitly declared at yesterday’s hearing that we would only be ‘convicted’ and ‘declared guilty’ if we broke the agreement,” he said.
He Liberty Counsel lawyer which represented Merritt for his part that the agreement is “basically a total victory for Merritt”, who was initially accused of 16 serious crimes and faced a possible sentence of more than 10 years in prison. With the agreement, the charges will be withdrawn and the Provida activist will not go to jail.
“The agreement ends an unfair criminal case by withdrawing these unfounded criminal charges without prison penalty, fines or other sanctions,” said Mat Stover, founder and president of Liberty Counsel in a statement.
“Sandra deserves to be applauded and acclaimed for revealing these horrors and then enduring this selective and vindictive process as a result,” Stover continued. “Killing human babies to collect parts of their profit for profit is evil and there is no excuse for Sandra’s political persecution,” he added.
Daleiden plans to continue exposing injustices in the abortion industry.
“Bringing the case from San Francisco de la Mesa allows me to fully concentrate on the CMP mission to inform about the injustices of the experiments financed by taxpayers in aborted babies and continue expanding our innovative investigation journalism,” Daleiden concluded.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA
Kate Quiñones
Kate Quiñones is a Catholic News Agency and Member of College Fix. It has publications on the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Catholic Register and Catholicvote. He graduated from Hillsdale College. Live in Colorado with her husband.