By Micaiah Bilger LifeNews, April 22, 2019
SACRAMENTO, CA – Undercover journalist David Daleiden received some good news Friday when the California Supreme Court suspended his preliminary hearing until further notice.
Daleiden’s attorneys with the Thomas More Society told LifeNews that the court based its decision on “political bias and selective prosecution.”
California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye released the decision Friday, his attorneys said. Daleiden’s preliminary hearing was slated to begin Monday and continue for approximately two weeks. Now, it is not clear if it will happen at all.
Daleiden is the founder of the Center for Medical Progress, which exposed Planned Parenthood for allegedly illegally selling aborted baby body parts. He and fellow investigator Sandra Merritt face 15 felony charges for non-consensual eavesdropping and conspiracy.
California Superior Court Judge Christopher Hite is the judge in the case. The now-delayed hearing was to decide if California Attorney General Xavier Becerra could present enough evidence to require Daleiden and Merritt to defend themselves against the charges at a jury trial.
According to their attorneys, the hearing would have been “the first time that the anonymous abortion industry witnesses who complained that they were illegally videotaped [would] present sworn testimony in court.” It also would have been the first time that “excerpts of the videos — capturing alleged involvement in illegal fetal tissue sales as well as the commission of violent felony crimes against human beings — [would] be shown in open court.”
The case is The People of the State of California v. David Robert Daleiden and Sandra Susan Merritt.
Throughout the process, their attorneys have said the charges are bogus and politically-motivated.
“We are confident David Daleiden’s First Amendment rights will be upheld ultimately,” said Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel at the Thomas More Society, in 2018. “When the smoke finally clears, we believe David Daleiden will be completely vindicated for exposing the truth about the abortion industry.”
In February, prosecuting state attorneys asked that video evidence be sealed from the public for the trial. They did so at the request of Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation, according to the Liberty Counsel.
However, Judge Hite refused the request.
“The Attorney General [Xavier Becerra] has failed to rebut the strong presumption in favor of open public trials in this instance,” Hite wrote in his decision.
Earlier, LifeNews reported that Hite did seal the names of 14 abortion workers after prosecutors claimed their safety could be jeopardized. KVPR News reports Hite agreed and threatened to punish anyone who releases the names.
Horatio Mihet, a Liberty Council attorney for Sandra Merritt, contended that safety is not prosecutors’ real concern, Courthouse News reported earlier this year.
“The only reason the attorney general wants to have these videos sealed and kept from the public eye is because the videos themselves provide damning evidence that these allegedly confidential conversations were not in fact confidential,” he said. “The videos themselves put the lie to the attorney general’s case and reveal it for the fraud that it is.”
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Pro-life advocates said the workers’ names are public and have been for years.
Hite also delayed the preliminary hearing after Planned Parenthood filed a last-minute motion to intervene in the case. According to CNS, the abortion chain wants to block the defense from cross-examining four of the 14 people whose names have been redacted, claiming they are “victims” under the state Marsy’s Law.
The report noted that Hite seemed skeptical of the abortion chain’s reasoning, but he did not rule on the matter yet.
Daleiden and Merritt have been defending themselves in court for years after they exposed gruesome baby body parts harvesting practices at Planned Parenthood. Many of the charges against them have been dropped, but the California case (originally started by pro-abortion presidential candidate Kamala Harris) continues.
The Center for Medical Progress investigation exposed numerous atrocities inside Planned Parenthood abortion facilities across the U.S. Its findings prompted investigations by the U.S. House and Senate, as well as a number of states.
The committees concluded by recommending that the Department of Justice investigate Planned Parenthood. Both said they found strong evidence that the abortion chain broke the law. The Department of Justice is investigating.
Planned Parenthood repeatedly has denied all allegations of wrong-doing, and many news outlets now parrot its talking points that the undercover videos were deceptively edited or debunked, even though that is not true. An independent forensics investigation verified that the videos were authentic.
Some undercover videos show how Planned Parenthood employees callously and flippantly negotiated the price of tiny baby hearts, lungs, livers and brains. Other evidence indicates the abortion giant may have broken HIPAA patient privacy laws.
The expose videos catching Planned Parenthood officials selling the body parts of aborted babies have shocked the nation. Here is a list of all 14: