A few days ago, attorney Nic Cocis and Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a reply with the San Francisco Superior Court asking it to dismiss 14 of the 15 Counts in the criminal complaint brought against Sandra Merritt.
The Court had previously agreed that the criminal complaint filed by the prosecutor was legally defective and dismissed 14 of the 15 counts. The Court granted the prosecutor 10 days to attempt to correct the defects and re-file the charges, but the prosecutor failed to file any amended complaint in Ms. Merritt’s case within the required deadline. Failure to timely file an amended complaint after it has been dismissed means that Counts 1-14 must be dismissed.
As you may recall from other news articles, the prosecutor's office, who has received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Planned Parenthood, claims that Ms. Merritt and David Daleiden filmed 14 Planned Parenthood doctors and other business executives, without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and El Dorado County. One felony count was filed for each person filmed. The 15th charge was for “criminal conspiracy” to invade “privacy.” However, the videos produced by Ms. Merritt and Mr. Daleiden exposed potentially illegal conduct by Planned Parenthood, and Planned Parenthood itself has admitted, under oath, that the recorded conversations took place in “non-confidential” and public venues.
(Attorneys Nic Cocis and Harry Mihet with Sandra Merritt, outside San Francisco Superior Courthouse)