Planned Parenthood awarded $2.3 million for secret videos (BARF ALERT)

A federal jury found Friday that an anti-abortion activist illegally secretly recorded workers at Planned Parenthood clinics and is liable for violating federal and state laws. The jury ordered him, the Center for Medical Progress and other parties to pay nearly $2.3 million in damages.

The jury awarded $1 million in damages, but offenses under the federal Racketeer and Corrupt Organizations Act are considered acts of organized crime and penalties awarded for them are automatically tripled.

After a six-week civil trial, the San Francisco jury found David Daleiden trespassed on private property and committed other crimes in recording the 2015 videos. He and the Center for Medical Progress and various employees were ordered to pay varying amounts.

Daleiden and a co-defendant, Sandra Merritt, are set to go on trial starting Dec. 6 on 14 counts each of invasion of privacy. They have pleaded not guilty and argue they are undercover journalists shielded from prosecution.

Planned Parenthood sued the activists as part of what the group called “a multi-year illegal effort to manufacture a malicious campaign.”

“The jury recognized today that those behind the campaign broke the law in order to advance their goals of banning safe, legal abortion in this country, and to prevent Planned Parenthood from serving the patients who depend on us,” the organization’s acting president and CEO, Alexis McGill Johnson, said in a statement.

Daleiden said the jury reached the verdict after a “biased judge with close Planned Parenthood ties spent six weeks trying to influence the jury with pre-determined rulings and suppressed the video evidence.”

ABC News should have first-hand knowledge that this ruling is a travesty.

The ABC News / Food Lion ruling should prevail here. That would mean that Daleiden should only be fined $1 for trespass.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that even though ABC was wrong to do what they had done, Food Lion was not suing for defamation, but rather for tort as a way to get around the strict First Amendment standards for defamation. Food Lion did this because the company was not contesting the truth of anything ABC reported in the broadcast.

The same thing is happening here. Did Planned Parenthood contest the truth of anything that Daleiden reported? The lawsuit alleged fraud, trespass, breach of conduct, and eavesdropping, but top Planned Parenthood witnesses spent six weeks testifying under oath that the undercover videos are true.

If the courts mess with precedent and award millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, does that suddenly let Food Lion reopen their $5.5 million judgment against ABC News?

How can one get away with $2 while the other is fined millions for the exact same thing?

This should be appealed to the Supreme Court based on the prior Fourth Circuit ruling on a similar case.

-PJ

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