May 20, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — The California Supreme Court has denied David Daleiden's petition to halt criminal prosecution against him. Daleiden is the undercover journalist whose videos allegedly reveal the involvement of abortion industry workers in illegal baby body parts trafficking. The Petition for Review, filed April 25, 2019, asked the state's high court to overrule the Superior Court of San Francisco County's order permitting the unconstitutional intervention of special interest groups in the criminal prosecution.
Peter Breen, Vice President and Senior Counsel at the Thomas More Society, is part of Daleiden's defense team, which includes former Los Angeles District Attorneys Steve Cooley and Brent Ferreira. Breen responded to the denial:
This decision to deny David Daleiden's Petition for Review means that Xavier Becerra , as Planned Parenthood's prosecutor-in-chief, will be able to continue his unconstitutional harassment of David, bringing charges against him that don't pass the “red face test.”
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is spearheading the prosecution of Daleiden, levying 15 criminal felony counts for non-consensual eavesdropping and conspiracy against him as a result of the abortion industry video exposés. Becerra is the successor to current Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who began the political prosecution and, like Harris, has been closely allied with, and supported by, Planned Parenthood.
The Petition pointed out that the prosecutors are biased and that the trial judge's orders permitting Planned Parenthood's lawyers to intervene in a criminal prosecution and permitting Daleiden's accusers to testify anonymously and sealing the evidence after the hearing all deny Daleiden his rights under the Constitution to an unbiased prosecution and a fair and public trial. Because the California Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal, the preliminary hearing, which the Supreme Court suspended in April, will be put back on the criminal court felony calendar, and the Thomas More Society will have the opportunity to cross-examine the abortion providers under oath as it puts the State to its burden of proving that it had probable cause to file the politically motivated felony charges in the first place.
The not-for-profit Thomas More Society has been defending Daleiden across the country as Planned Parenthood Federation of America, together with multiple affiliates, and the National Abortion Federation have brought civil lawsuits against him. Abortion-friendly officials have pressed criminal charges against Daleiden, most notably, with this case in San Francisco and a previous one in Houston, Texas, where the Thomas More Society succeeded in have all charges against Daleiden dismissed.