Charges dropped against activists in fetal tissue sale video

HOUSTON — Prosecutors dismissed Tuesday the last of the charges against two anti-abortion activists who covertly recorded a video of themselves meeting with Planned Parenthood officials, effectively ending a case that had drawn national attention from both opponents and supporters of abortion.

The activists, David Daleiden, 27, and Sandra Merritt, 62, members of the Center for Medical Progress, were indicted by a grand jury in Harris County, Texas, in January on charges of tampering with government records and offering to buy fetal tissue at a meeting at which Planned Parenthood officials explained how they provide the tissue to medical researchers. Their video, which was widely circulated on the internet, alleged that Planned Parenthood was guilty of the crime of selling fetal remains.

After the video surfaced in last summer, the Texas lieutenant governor, a Republican, asked the Republican district attorney in Harris County to examine Planned Parenthood. A grand jury ended up indicting Mr. Daleiden and Ms. Merritt, and taking no action against Planned Parenthood.

At a hearing of the case in a Houston courtroom Tuesday, prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office dropped all charges against the two activists by dismissing the two indictments, citing a legal technicality with the grand jury’s term.

Mr. Daleiden’s lawyers had sought to have the case thrown out because the indictments came during an extension of its term. They argued the grand jury did not have the authority to indict Mr. Daleiden and Ms. Merritt during the so-called holdover period, and prosecutors appear to have agreed.

The indictment stemmed from a meeting Mr. Daleiden and Ms. Merritt had at the Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast offices in Houston. To gain entry to the building for the meeting, Mr. Daleiden and Ms. Merritt presented to security fake California driver’s licenses. They had been each indicted on felony charges of tampering with a governmental record with the intent to defraud, and Mr. Daleiden had faced an additional misdemeanor charge related to offering to purchase human organs.