US jurist recuses herself in moribund Planned Parenthood dispute

A U.S. magistrate judge in Sacramento recused herself from a nearly-dead discovery dispute sprouting from a civil action brought by Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc., which is seeking damages for a public accusation that it sold fetal tissue for profit.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Barnes did not respond to a request for comment Thursday, regarding the reason for her recusal order Wednesday in the dispute that neither side was pursuing.

Filed in a San Francisco federal court, the original suit brought by Planned Parenthood accuses two antiabortion activists and their organization, The Center for Medical Progress, of infiltrating private industry conferences and allegedly violating state and federal laws by secretly recording their conversations. As part of its damages claim, Planned Parenthood says it needed to spend millions of dollars in additional security at clinics as a result of the videos being released on the internet. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. v. Center for Medical Progress, 16-CV00236 (N.D. Cal., filed Jan. 2016).

The two antiabortion activists, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, are concurrently facing criminal charges in a separate case brought by Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who charged them with 15 counts of invasion of privacy and conspiracy.

Daleiden's attorneys from the Law Offices of Charles S. LiMandri APC, who referred to their clients as undercover journalists, said the criminal case is unprecedented and would have negative First Amendment implications if they were found guilty. A similar case brought in Texas was thrown out by a state court judge.

After the anti-abortion activists released the videos, which appear to show Planned Parenthood staff discussing the sale of fetal tissue to a San Francisco nonprofit called Advanced Bioscience Resources, a congressional investigation into the lesser known world of tissue procurement was launched.

While the investigations have found no wrongdoing, LiMandri filed a motion to subpoena invoices between Planned Parenthood and Advanced Bioscience in an effort to bolster the defense in the civil suit.

After receiving invoices from both Planned Parenthood Pacific Southwest and Bioscience, attorneys for the defense claimed they did not match.

The defense also said the added total of the invoices did not match the total amount Advanced Biosciences paid Planned Parenthood Pacific Southwest as it was reported to congressional investigators for Fiscal 2015. The Limandri firm then filed a request for all bank records relating to payments received from Advanced Biosciences.

Planned Parenthood Pacific Southwest, represented by Sharon Mayo of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, responded claiming no such bank records existed, leading to an offshoot discovery dispute action before Barnes.

After the two parties failed to file a joint discovery disagreement brief prior to a September hearing, Barnes dropped the hearing from the calendar and denied the motion to compel the bank records.