StemExpress, the human tissue processor that has played a key role in recent videos accusing Planned Parenthood of illegally trafficking in fetal organs, has obtained a restraining order against the release of a new video.
The temporary restraining order (TRO), granted by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, bars the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) from releasing footage of three StemExpress executives the group apparently recorded at a lunch last May. What might have been said at this lunch that StemExpress doesn’t want getting out is unknown.
StemExpress allows buyers to purchase various types of human tissue, including fetal livers and umbilical cord blood. In its court complaint, StemExpress accused CMP of invasion of privacy, breach of contract, receipt of stolen property, and unfair competition. (RELATED: Fetal Parts Purchaser Changes Its Website Following Video)
The most central part of StemExpress’s complaint is that CMP violated California law by videotaping three StemExpress employees without their consent. California is a two-party consent state for video recordings, and the company alleges its personnel never provided such consent. The company also accuses CMP of editing previous videos of Planned Parenthood personnel to show them in a negative light.
“As a result of the coverage [of CMP’s videos, StemExpress founder Catherine] Dyer has been harassed and even received death threats,” the complain says. “StemExpress’s business has already been impacted because of false and misleading assertions… CMP has stated its intention to release more ‘undercover’ video footage. Plaintiffs believe that CMP is at least in part to video illegally taken of the Defendants.”
The complaint asked the judge to bar any such video from being released, arguing both that the video itself is illegal and that it will be maliciously edited.
The restraining order will last until an additional hearing in August. In a statement on its website, StemExpress has pledged to “pursue all available legal remedies” against both CMP and its leader David Daleiden.
CMP released a statement of its own condemning the “meritless” lawsuit.
“StemExpress… is attempting to use meritless litigation to cover-up this illegal baby parts trade, suppress free speech, and silence the citizen press reporting on issues of burning concern to the American public,” the statement says. “They are not succeeding—their initial petition was rejected by the court, and their second petition was eviscerated to a narrow and contingent order about an alleged recording pending CMP’s opportunity to respond.”
CMP but an exclamation mark on its defiance by linking to a StemExpress advertisement touting the “profits” clinics could make by selling tissues to the company.
CMP has also kept up its video releases, launching another video on Thursday that allegedly shows a Planned Parenthood official discussing the pricing for individual fetal body parts.
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