Last charges dropped in case on Planned Parenthood videos

HOUSTON — Texas prosecutors Tuesday dropped the last remaining charges against two California anti-abortion activists who made undercover videos of themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood, agreeing with the defense’s argument that the grand jury exceeded its authority by investigating the activists after clearing Planned Parenthood.

District Judge Brock Thomas dismissed the tampering with government records charges against David Daleiden, 27, and Sandra Merritt, 63, at the request of the Harris County prosecutor’s office.

District Attorney Devon Anderson, a Republican, supported the charges when they were handed down in January. That didn’t sit well with many members of her party.

Defense attorneys said the activists never should have been charged. And Merritt and Daleiden, who founded a group called the Center for Medical Progress, had rejected plea deals offering probation.

Prosecutors alleged that Daleiden, from Davis, Calif., and Merritt, from San Jose, Calif., used fake driver’s licenses to conceal their identities from Planned Parenthood during the 30-month undercover operation. They said the two posed as representatives of a fake biomedical company and sought to show that Planned Parenthood illegally sold parts of aborted fetuses to researchers.

Texas initially began a grand jury investigation of Planned Parenthood after the undercover videos were released last August. But the grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of misusing fetal tissue and instead indicted Merritt and Daleiden, who said he was working undercover as a journalist to expose illegalities in the handling of fetal tissue.