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- Defense Attorney Peter Breen in closing arguments"They (Planned Parenthood) wanted to protect the brand. But what is it that hurt the brand? The very words spoken by Planned Parenthood personnel on those videos is what hurt the brand."
"… this is not a case of fraud or racketeering. This is a case of undercover journalism. And we, the people, need that information. You need that information. You may not like seeing that information. It may be difficult or whatever. But we don't want to stop the flow of information."
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[From our courtroom correspondent]
The jury lost another member today to the flu. There are now ten members for the rest of the case, nine men and one woman. The other two original members have been excused.
This morning Judge Orrick read the 97 pages of jury instructions aloud. Jury instructions are intended to help the jury to understand the law relating to the various claims of the lawsuit.
The jury instructions included the fact that Orrick had already found that the defendants trespassed when they attended, undercover, Planned Parenthood conferences in Miami and Orlando and met with Planned Parenthood executives at Planned Parenthood facilities in Colorado and Texas. He instructed the jury to only concern themselves with the damages that the defendants are liable for that trespass, both punitive and actual. Further, he instructed that defendants breached contracts with Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation and the jury should award damages because of those breaches.
He went through the plaintiffs’ claims – trespass, breach of contract, fraud, RICO, illegal recording, and conspiracy – and instructed the jury on what elements of the crimes plaintiffs must prove in order to prevail on their claims.
Rhonda Trotter began the closing arguments for Planned Parenthood with the theme that each one of the defendants was “demonstrated to be a liar.” She said that defendants lied to Planned Parenthood, lied to the secretary of state when incorporating BioMax, and lied to “you, the jurors.” Her evidence for the last point was a small handful of excerpts of testimony by defendants who tentatively recalled something minor when asked to remember, and then acknowledged that their memory was incorrect when presented with a piece of hard evidence.
Trotter used an animated slide show of the jury verdict form and instructed the jury to check the yes box on every claim.
She told the jury that defendants had lied when they said that they wanted to uncover illegal activity committed by Planned Parenthood when, really, “their main objective was to destroy Planned Parenthood and end abortion.”
Jeremy Kamras took over from Trotter to discuss damages for which the defendants are allegedly liable. He listed around $630,000 in actual damages and encouraged the jury to award punitive damages in the amount of some multiple of the actual damages in order to punish the defendants and discourage others from following their example. Quoting Planned Parenthood abortionist Thomas Moran, he said that awarding punitive damages was “standing up to the bullies.”
Plaintiff’s saved about half an hour of their three hours of closing to use after the defendants closing.
Peter Breen opened on behalf of defendants with a stirring call to defend messengers who provide information, even when we don’t like the information. As a democracy, “we, the people” need information in order to properly enact laws. The defendants brought important information to light. He pointed out that Planned Parenthood did not try to dispute that the conversations recorded showed the actual words of their employees and that Planned Parenthood’s president at the time, Cecile Richards, made a public apology after the release of the first video.
Charles LiMandri spoke next. He said that Trotter’s attempts to paint defendants as liars were “pathetic.”
He replayed a video clip of Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Deborah Nucatola meeting with CMP investigators for lunch and describing crushing above and below the chest cavity of a fetus in order to harvest more intact organs. He said that the illegal activity she described at that lunch – including selling body parts and changing abortion procedures to obtain better body parts for harvest – was the cause of public outrage.
He noted that despite the plaintiffs’ multiple references to threats and danger after the videos’ release, the only “threat” that Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Mary Gatter could recall was on old friend writing with the hope that “God kicked her in the butt.”
LiMandri also argued that Planned Parenthood is seeking damages to cover their security upgrades, not fix something that was broken. Planned Parenthood is motivated by greed, he said.
The defense will continue closing arguments on Wednesday before the plaintiffs finish. Then the case will go to the jury.
The transcript of today’s defense closing arguments is here.