It's a gravy train if you can get it....
Posted on 07/19/2017 8:10:20 PM PDT by Morgana
Yesterday Judge William Orrick held David Daleiden, the Center for Medical Progress, and two of David’s criminal defense attorneys in civil contempt for violating a court order prohibiting the release of video footage related to NAF conferences and related meetings. The footage was posted to a private website in May.
Orrick said Daleiden’s lawyers published undercover video footage of a National Abortion Federation meeting in violation of a court order.
“Criminal defense counsel … do not get to decide whether they can violate the preliminary injunction,” Orrick said Tuesday in court.
Daleiden’s criminal defense attorneys argued that the videos are essential to providing David with a robust public defense after California Attorney General Xavier Beccera charged Daleiden and Sandra Merritt with 15 felony counts of eavesdropping. The first set of charges were dismissed by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Christopher Hite in the criminal case for lack of specificity. Beccera recently amended and refiled the charges, this time including the file names of certain videos. However, the charges still do not name the individuals involved in the conversations during which Planned Parenthood doctors and other abortionists discuss the sale of fetal body parts for profit.
Judge Orrick’s contempt order awards approximately $137,000 to the National Abortion Federation for attorney fees and for alleged staff time to scour the internet looking for links to the Daleiden videos.
On a positive note, Judge Hite was receptive to arguments that the amended charges against Susan Merritt were not properly filed. An update will follow as soon as we know whether these charges will be dismissed.
“As always, the abortion cartel is furious that its trade in baby body parts and its willingness to violate laws that protect preborn babies from gruesome abortion procedures are being exposed,” said Life Legal Defense Foundation Executive Director Alexandra Snyder. “Since the first video release two years ago, they have been waging a vicious campaign to punish-and permanently silence-our client.”
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The video footage in question was released in May. It shows top Planned Parenthood staffers attending meetings of the National Abortion Federation in 2014 and 2015 and discussing gruesome details about aborted babies. In one clip, several attendees made jokes about eyeballs from aborted babies “rolling down into their laps.”
Orrick forced the videos to be taken down.
Daleiden refused to say whether he published the video Tuesday in court, according to the report. Orrick, who has ties to the abortion industry, said he will hold attorneys Steve Cooley and Brentford Ferreira in contempt.
The Center for Medical Progress, Daleiden’s group, said his attorneys are being persecuted “just for trying to use the same video evidence in his defense that the California AG is using in his prosecution.”
In a statement, Daleiden’s group continued: “The [California] State prosecution is such a bad case, Planned Parenthood and NAF want Judge Orrick to intervene in the middle of this separate (and bogus) state criminal prosecution to put his thumb on the scales and forbid David from getting a fair trial.
In June, Daleiden’s lawyers asked that Orrick recuse himself from the case, arguing that he has links to the abortion industry. They said Orrick has had a long relationship with an group that partners with Planned Parenthood, and his wife publicly supported abortion online.
While Orrick was secretary of the board of the Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, the organization “embedded a Planned Parenthood clinic inside its premises, and lists among its ‘key partnerships’ … Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific …” according to the request.
The Planned Parenthood affiliate also is a member of the National Abortion Federation, the plaintiff in the case, according to the court document.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed charges against Daleiden and fellow investigator Sandra Merritt in March, alleging that they recorded private conversations without people’s consent in the state.
The Thomas More Society, which is representing Daleiden in the case, questioned who really is running the show:
“The pendency of simultaneous federal civil cases proceeding side-by-side with such a major state criminal prosecution of multiple felonies was bound to breed the most serious and grave complications, not to mention the miscarriage of justice. Must the pro-lifers’ criminal defense lawyers seek prior federal permission before summoning or cross-examining prosecution witnesses, or introducing videos or other documentary evidence into the trial record? Must the state court Judge, Hon. Christopher Hite, consult with the federal Judge, Hon. William Orrick, before ruling on objections to evidence?
“And who is actually directing the criminal case, Attorney General Becerra, or the federal civil plaintiffs, the National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, who lobbied him and his predecessor, then Attorney General Kamala Harris, to bring these excessive felony charges? We will carry on with efforts to see that justice is ultimately achieved in these troubling cases.”
Shouldn’t he have recused himself?
Alas poor Orrick, we know thee(too well)
People whisper of the Illuminati and the Masons, but the open conspiracy is the Bar. Lawyers run everything of note in this country. They control the language used, the laws written, interpretation of the law and each citizens freedom or lack of depending on their obedience.
People whisper of the Illuminati and the Masons, but the open conspiracy is the Bar. Lawyers run everything of note in this country. They control the language used, the laws written, interpretation of the law and each citizens freedom or lack of depending on their obedience.
When are you seats going to learn; judges are god! Now shut and obey!
seats > serfs
Yep, not to mention they have hijacked haealthcare too and are responsible for 20% of the costs.
I would have told the judge to shove it up his ass in court.
Arizona sure can pick 'em. Red state? More like magenta or pink.
Wasn’t this the judge that has promised to release dirt on the the DNC and the Clintonistas ? < / sarcasm> (There.... , let HRC Cartel take care of him)
The judge issued it. If it’s wrong are they going to just defy or are they going to appeal? I hope it was worth the defiance. Not sure what a summary wouldn’t do to get public support for Daleiden’s defense that a defiance would. The problem is the ABORTIONS. Any after-use of the bodies is a minor fillip on that. Keeping focus on the ABORTIONS would be key here. IMHO
“Fear God: honor the king.”
Nowhere near all the other possible approaches have been used yet. The problem is hard hearted mothers being helped to be even more hard hearted by a flood of so called liberal lies. The sale of dead body parts is a small sideshow here. Should Daleiden have exposed this aggravating factor? Sure. Should pro-life have defied the court order while the very investigation that is supposed to determine if the expose is legit is in motion? Color me unsold here.
That’s a good question, but sometimes the law of the land crosses a point where compliance contradicts your core beliefs (e.g. Daniel 3; firey furnace).
The murder of innocent humans (abortion) shouldn’t be legal. And any marketplace regarding human parts should be exposed.
With Orrick’s obvious conflict of interest, and the egregious video evidence, it’d be difficult to sit on that. Plus who’s to say the court would’ve ruled in their favor in the end.
It’s a tough judgement call to make.
The judge exceeded his authority; there is no way the public didn’t have a right to know what Planned Parenthood was doing. The video was relevant evidence and should have been made available to the public. Moral right and wrong sometimes do take precedence over judges’ rulings.
I can’t think of a single instance where video taped undercover footage has ever had fines levied, or a judge telling the people trying to expose the truth that they were unable to speak or spread that truth. 60 minutes and every local news outlets have done this for years.
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