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“The Plaintiffs Rest, Your Honor”
Judge Orrick predicts that evidence and argument will be wrapped up on Wednesday, November 6, and that closing arguments will be made on Tuesday, November 12, when the trial reconvenes. The plaintiffs rest their case.
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Today Judge William Orrick informed the jury that he feels confident that the current phase of the proceedings, in which witnesses are examined and exhibits are entered into evidence, will close at the end of session on Wednesday, November 6. He said that if this comes about, the court will be closed on Thursday and Friday, as well as on Veterans Day, November 11, and the attorneys will prepare their closing arguments, which will be presented on Tuesday, November 12.
Today, plaintiffs began with a videotaped deposition of Greg Mueller, an associate of David Daleiden’s who had provided public relations help for the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). Then Kevin Paul, an attorney associated with Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountain, the clinic where David Daleiden secretly videotaped Dr. Savita Ginde. Mr. Paul described again the precautions taken on her behalf, for the cost of which CMP should be held responsible.
When Mr. Paul was done, the plaintiffs’ attorneys announced that they would rest their case.
The defense was then invited to begin presentation of its case.
The defense called two unfriendly witnesses, the owner and the manager of Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR), a fetal-tissue-procurement business that CMP had studied. Then the defense called a friendly witness, Dr. Michael New, a statistician who testified in rebuttal of the data on violence against abortion providers published by the National Abortion Federation (NAF). The next witness, appearing in a videotaped deposition, was Kathleen Bryan, a friend and associate of David Daleiden’s, a public relations professional, who had assisted CMP in making contacts with media about his Human Capital Project (the video releases).
The final testimony summoned up by the defense was four minutes of videotaped deposition from Tram Nguyen, a manager at the Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast clinic, who is author of an e-mail that has been important to the defense, in which she is on record urging her superiors to “move forward” on a BioMax proposal to secure specific fetal organs (liver and thymus) from the clinic.
You Can See What the Jurors Are Forbidden to See
All of the above examination and cross-examination was interesting. But for this lay observer, a nagging question underlies the whole proceeding: What must the jury be thinking about the fact that the charges and claims in this trial have all arisen from a certain set of videotapes, and they are not allowed by the Court to view any of these videotapes? Does this prohibition work for the defense, in that a juror may infer that the videos contain powerful material injurious to the plaintiffs’ claims? The CMP videotapes at issue here are all in public view here on the Center for Medical Progress website.
Court adjourned at 1:00 p.m. and will be back in session at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 6.
Up-to-Date Reporting from the Pro-life Side Is Here
Fresh and accurate reporting, in useful detail, of the proceedings on most days, is being published on the website of LIVE ACTION. Check at LIVE ACTION for the latest articles.
Historical Perspective and the Genesis of This Lawsuit
For some historical perspective, read this article from the Politics section of the New York Times of September 26, 2015. This was published during the two-month period after the initial release of a CMP video in July, when a fresh CMP video was being released almost weekly. It reports how Planned Parenthood was scurrying to concoct some response to CMP’s charges. This Times news report amounts to a lengthy defense of Planned Parenthood. It is well to remember that though the defense rested its case today in court, defense of Planned Parenthood and of the abortion industry in general seldom rests in the mainstream media.
-- by J. A. Gray, correspondent