Anti-abortion activist sues state for prosecuting him for recording Planned Parenthood officials

Anti-abortion activist David R. Daleiden, who faces multiple felony counts of illegally recording Planned Parenthood and others, sued several state officials and private organizations arguing they illegally used California's video recording laws to prosecute a citizen-journalist.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the Central District of California, is a bid by Daleiden's attorneys to go on offense against the state while his criminal trial in San Francisco Superior Court is pending.

Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Dhillon Law Group Inc. cited Reconstruction-era statutes and more recent cases during a Thursday phone interview to support the complaint's assertions that a pending state trial should be undone because it violates federal law. She is seeking injunctive relief to block the state attorney general's office prosecution of Daleiden.

The complaint accuses state officials -- from Sen. Kamala Harris to her successor as attorney general, Xavier Becerra -- of conspiring with Planned Parenthood leaders and others "to selectively use California's video recording laws as a political weapon to silence disfavored speech." It also challenges the unconstitutionality of the statute itself.

The state Department of Justice did not return a message seeking comment on the lawsuit Thursday. The Center for Medical Progress et al. v. Becerra et al., 20-CV00891 (C.D. Cal., filed May 12, 2020).

San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Christopher C. Hite ruled Daleiden and co-defendant Sandra S. Merritt should face trial on nine felony counts in December following a preliminary hearing on charges they illegally recorded conversations with employees of Planned Parenthood and a stem cell company.

He dismissed five other counts because they occurred in public places. People v. Daleiden et al., 2502505, 17006621 (S.F. County Sup. Ct., filed March 28, 2017).

-- Craig Anderson