HOUSTON — A grand jury here that was investigating accusations of misconduct against Planned Parenthood has instead indicted two abortion opponents who made undercover videos of the organization.
Prosecutors in Harris County said one of the leaders of the Center for Medical Progress — an anti-abortion group that made secretly recorded videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials trying to illegally profit from the sale of fetal tissue — had been indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record, a felony, and on a misdemeanor charge related to purchasing human organs.
That leader, David Daleiden, 26, director of the center, had posed as a biotechnology representative to infiltrate Planned Parenthood affiliates and surreptitiously record his efforts to procure tissue for research. Another center employee, Sandra Merritt, was indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record.
Abortion opponents claimed that the videos, which were released starting in July, revealed that Planned Parenthood was engaged in the illegal sale of body parts — a charge the organization has denied and that has not been supported in numerous congressional and state investigations triggered by the release of the videos.
On Monday, the Harris County district attorney, Devon Anderson, said in a statement that grand jurors had cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing.
She declined to provide details about the case against Daleiden and Merritt, including any documents or evidence presented to the grand jury, citing state law on the secrecy of grand jury proceedings.
"As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us," Anderson said. "All the evidence uncovered in the course of this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult case."
The release of the videos last summer created a furor and gave new strength to the conservative drive to defund Planned Parenthood. The organization was forced to apologize for the casual tone that one of its officials used to discuss a possible transfer of fetal tissue to what she believed was a legitimate medical company. But Planned Parenthood said the fees being discussed were to cover costs and were legal.
Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said Monday that the inspector general of the state's Health and Human Services Commission and the Texas attorney general's office have been investigating Planned Parenthood's actions.
"Nothing about today's announcement in Harris County impacts the state's ongoing investigation," Abbott said in a statement. "The state of Texas will continue to protect life, and I will continue to support legislation prohibiting the sale or transfer of fetal tissue."
The state attorney general, Ken Paxton, said in a statement: "The fact remains that the videos exposed the horrific nature of abortion and the shameful disregard for human life of the abortion industry. The state's investigation of Planned Parenthood is ongoing."
The case here started in August, when Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican and an outspoken opponent of abortion and Planned Parenthood, asked Anderson to open a criminal investigation into the organization. His request came after the release of an undercover video recorded at a Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast office in Houston with a research official for the organization.
Patrick, in a statement Monday, played down the significance of the indictment, saying the recent anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision was "a solid reminder of the over 50 million innocent lives that have been lost to abortions. I will never be deterred from standing up to fight to protect the unborn."
Anderson, a Republican who was appointed district attorney by Gov. Rick Perry in 2013 and was later elected to the office, described the investigation on Monday as "lengthy and thorough," and said it involved her office, the Houston police and the Texas Rangers. She said the grand jury reviewed the joint inquiry for more than two months.
This month in federal court in San Francisco, Planned Parenthood sued the center, Daleiden and other abortion opponents involved in the videos. The suit accused them of engaging in a three-year criminal enterprise to target the group.
"These people broke the law to spread malicious lies about Planned Parenthood in order to advance their extreme anti-abortion political agenda," Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement Monday. "As the dust settles and the truth comes out, it's become totally clear that the only people who engaged in wrongdoing are the criminals behind this fraud, and we're glad they're being held accountable."
In a statement Monday night, Daleiden said: "The Center for Medical Progress uses the same undercover techniques that investigative journalists have used for decades in exercising our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and of the press, and follows all applicable laws. We respect the processes of the Harris County district attorney, and note that buying fetal tissue requires a seller as well. Planned Parenthood still cannot deny the admissions from their leadership about fetal organ sales captured on video for all the world to see."
In making the videos, Daleiden and others have been accused of setting up a fake company called Biomax Procurement Services, creating fake identities and claiming to be part of a legitimate provider of fetal tissue to researchers. The charge of tampering with a governmental record appeared to be related to Daleiden's and Merritt's use of fake ID cards.
"We know that they used fake IDs that had their real photographs but fake names and fake addresses purported to be issued by the state of California," said Josh Schaffer, a Houston lawyer who represents Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in the Harris County criminal investigation. Daleiden and Merritt presented those IDs to security at the Planned Parenthood office to gain entry to the building. "They never denied that they presented a fake ID," Schaffer said.
Schaffer said he believed the misdemeanor charge stemmed from laws prohibiting offers to buy fetal tissue. He said that following the meeting with Planned Parenthood officials in Houston in April, Daleiden sent an email to them in June offering to buy fetal tissue for $1,600 per sample. Planned Parenthood never responded to the offer, Schaffer said.
"It does not surprise me that a grand jury that chose to correctly apply the law to the evidence that was presented would return this result," he said. "The written charges have not been released publicly yet, so at this point I am working on my knowledge of the investigation."