Jury Awards Planned Parenthood $2M+ in Case Against Undercover Anti-Abortion Activists
A San Francisco federal jury sided against a group of anti-abortion activists who recorded hidden camera videos meant to discredit Planned Parenthood on all claims asserted. The more than $2 million verdict includes $870,000 in punitive damages.
November 15, 2019 at 05:08 PM
3 minute read
The original version of this story was published on The Recorder
Planned Parenthood, whose Ann Arbor location is shown Sept. 7, 2014.
A San Francisco federal jury on Friday sided with Planned Parenthood in its cases against anti-abortion activists who recorded hidden camera videos meant to discredit the organization.
Jurors awarded Planned Parenthood and its affiliates more than $2 million, including $870,000 in punitive damages, after finding against the defendants—five individuals and two corporations who described their work as an undercover journalism project. The jury sided with Planned Parenthood on all claims asserted, including fraud, trespass, breach of contract, illegal recording, civil conspiracy and violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick III of the Northern District of California, who has overseen the case since it was filed in 2016, made clear to the parties that he wanted the trial to focus on the strategies used by the defendants, not about whether Planned Parenthood and its affiliates illegally profited from the sale of fetal tissue—the subject the defendants claimed they were investigating. Some of the individual defendants used fake drivers licenses to gain access to Planned Parenthood conferences and facilities to make surreptitious recordings.
David Daleiden, the 30-year-old anti-abortion activist whom Planned Parenthood lawyers referred to as the "ringleader" of the group, still faces criminal charges of invasion of privacy and conspiracy in California state court, as does co-defendant Sandra Merritt.
"The jury has spoken loud and clear. Those who violate the law in an effort to limit access to reproductive rights and healthcare will be held accountable," said Planned Parenthood lead trial counsel, Rhonda Trotter of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer in a statement. "It has been our firm's great honor to represent Planned Parenthood in this important matter, and to help protect the rights, safety and security of Planned Parenthood and its dedicated doctors and staff in the face of an egregious and unlawful attack."
Arnold & Porter's Jeremy Kamras and Sharon Mayo also represented Planned Parenthood alongside Amy Bomse of Rogers Joseph O'Donnell in San Francisco.
Defense attorney Harmeet Dhillon of Dhillon Law Group said her team was disappointed in the verdict and plans to pursue a number of issues on appeal.
"The jury worked with limited information and with a number of legal and factual outcomes predetermined by the Court," she said in a statement. "This verdict will not be the last word on these weighty factual, legal, and moral issues—like life, they are too important to leave undefended."
Dhillon was joined in representing defendants by attorneys from the Law Offices of LiMandri & Jonna in Rancho Santa Fe, California; Mayall Hurley in Stockton, California; the Life Legal Defense Foundation in Ojai, California; and Liberty Counsel in Orlando, Florida.
Read more:
Planned Parenthood Gets Win at Ninth Circuit In Case Over Anti-Abortion Videos
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