Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
David Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), was indicted by a Texas grand jury for attempting to buy aborted-baby body parts (misdemeanor) and using a fake ID (felony) for his role in an undercover Planned Parenthood sting.
He and another colleague posed as tissue buyers while secretly recording employees discussing selling the body parts of discarded unborn babies.
But a court recently dismissed the lesser charge.
“The Harris County prosecutors were in such a rush to criminalize David Daleiden that they did not properly obtain grand jury approval of each of the elements of the charged misdemeanor,” Thomas More Society lawyer Peter Breen said. “All charges against Daleiden and his investigators should be dismissed, based on the evidence that Harris County District Attorney’s prosecutors colluded with Planned Parenthood to secure these indictments. Planned Parenthood’s illegitimate aim is clear: it hopes to turn attention away from the abortion industry’s baby parts trafficking, by instead attacking the man who exposed its illegal practices. The Harris County District Attorney’s office should reject that aim and prosecute Planned Parenthood, not David Daleiden and his investigators.”
The prosecutor’s office won’t appeal the dismissal.
From CMP:
“In finding that the indictment was void on its face, Judge Bull’s ruling directly contradicts the District Attorney’s argument that the indictment was valid despite the DA’s collusion with Planned Parenthood. The dismissal of the first indictment today sends a strong message to Planned Parenthood and their political cronies that colluding to suppress the First Amendment rights of citizen journalists will never work.”
CMP began releasing the videos last summer. One result of the video series is the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives.
Committee vice chair Rep. Marsha Blackburn has asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to investigate the tissue company that worked with Planned Parenthood, StemExpress, for possible patient privacy and consent violations.
