The Harris County grand jury that indicted pro-life activist David Daleiden for exposing Planned Parenthood selling aborted baby body parts never even voted on filing criminal charges against the nation’s largest abortion business.
The Texas grand jury indicted David Daleiden and another pro-life activist, Sandra Merritt, behind the videos. Instead of prosecuting Planned Parenthood for selling aborted baby parts, Daleiden was indicted for buying them.
Daleiden and Merritt were charged with one felony related to tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to buying human tissue. The felony charge was in reference to the use of a fake ID. If convicted, Daleiden faces 20 years in prison while Planned Parenthood officials face no legal consequences for their actions.
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Now, an attorney for the Planned Parenthood abortion company has admitted to the Associated Press that the grand jury, which closed the investigation into Planned Parenthood, never bothered to vote on whether to file criminal charges against it or its officials caught on tape selling aborted babies.
“Planned Parenthood attorney Josh Schaffer said a prosecutor told him the grand jury never even voted on possible criminal charges against the nation’s largest abortion provider,” an Associated Press report indicates.
Officials with the pro-life group Operation Rescue are furious at the news.
“No vote means no investigation,” said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Vice President of Operation Rescue. “The people are entitled to an unbiased investigation into the serious allegations of illegal conduct by Planned Parenthood. That does not appear to have happened.”
The non-vote is not surprising given that a prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson’s office serves on the Board of Directors for Planned Parenthood. Lauren Reeder is a prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s criminal family law division. Reeder is listed as a non-compensated “Director” on the 990 Tax Form for 2014 filed by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.
Anderson also failed to prosecute an abortionist known as the Kermit Gosnell of Houston.
Anderson oversaw a previous abortion-related grand jury investigation of Houston abortionist Douglas Karpen after Operation Rescue released evidence in the form of photos and witness testimony that abortions babies were being born alive during abortions and intentionally killed by twisting their necks. This case garnered publicity in the wake of the conviction of Pennsylvania abortionist Kermit Gosnell on three counts of First Degree Murder for intentionally killing babies born alive during abortions in a similar fashion.
The pro-life group said that grand jury failed to return a “true bill” that would have led to Karpen’s prosecution. Operation Rescue has reason to believe that the grand jury did not have access to all the evidence, and that Anderson’s close personal relationship with Karpen’s attorney, Chip Lewis, may have contributed to the failure of the grand jury to indict Karpen.
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and there’s just too way much smoke blowing Planned Parenthood’s way in Harris County for us to feel remotely comfortable that Anderson’s office can conduct a fair and impartial investigation,”the group said at the time.
