(Headline Image: Pictured - David Daleiden, screenshot/YouTube)
San Francisco - go figure.
U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick ruled on Wednesday that the pro-life defendants/activists in the infamous "baby body parts case," as LifeSiteNews called it, are ordered to pay the Planned Parenthood Federation of America more than $2 million in punitive damages. The astronomical number does not include the defendants attorney fees, which will add a significant amount of money owed.
According to Courthousenews.com:
The jury awarded Planned Parenthood $870,000 in punitive damages. Because that amount was tripled under the federal racketeering law, the award combined with compensatory damages totaled more than $2 million[...]
Planned Parenthood sought a broad order forbidding Daleiden and his cohort from entering a Planned Parenthood office, health center or conference, or attempting to enter under disguise, as well as preventing them from making any more secret recordings of Planned Parenthood staff. They also sought to extend the order to anyone else who might act in concert with the defendants.
Daleiden and his co-defendants objected, arguing that such an order would obstruct future journalistic efforts.
LifeSiteNews reports the list of those found liable are all recognizable names in the pro-life movement.
The roster of those found liable reads like a who’s who of pro-life all stars: Troy Newman, longtime pro-life activist and president of Operation Rescue; David Daleiden, project lead of CMP (Center For Medical Progress) who became the face of the investigation; Sandra Merritt; Albin Rhomberg; and Gerardo Adrian Lopez. Each has been found “joint and severally liable” for the $1,555,084 judgment. (the award combined with compensatory damages totaled more than $2 million.)
“It is no longer in dispute that Planned Parenthood sold aborted baby parts for profit and that our video evidence was authentic. They admitted it during our trial,” Newman said in a just-released statement. Newman served as a founding board member of CMP during the undercover investigation.
“I believe when the full truth is finally told – and it wasn’t at our trial – we will all be exonerated, and it will be Planned Parenthood that will be held liable for their crimes in a court of law,” said Newman. “I look forward to that day.”
Judge Orrick determined that the defendants will also be barred from ever entering any Planned Parenthood conference in the future in the form of an injunction, but narrowed the scope allowing for access to public areas.
There has been no official word at time of publication if additional legal action will be taken to appeal Orrick's ruling.
In 2015, CMP released videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s trade in aborted baby body parts after an undercover operation. The videos showed top-level Planned Parenthood executives haggling over prices of aborted baby body parts and discussing how to change abortion procedures to obtain more intact organs.