A California judge dismissed the final criminal charge against pro-life journalist David Daleiden on April 2, fully expunging a case that lasted nearly 11 years.
San Francisco County Judge Brian Ferrall's ruling closes a prosecution that Daleiden's defense team has called a politically driven effort to punish investigative reporting on the abortion industry — one that began under Kamala Harris' tenure as California attorney general.
Daleiden, founder of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), and journalist Sandra Merritt released undercover videos in 2015 showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue procurement. Planned Parenthood changed its fetal tissue collection policy in October 2015 in response to CMP’s videos.
Harris' office launched a criminal investigation into Daleiden and Merritt and raided Daleiden's apartment in 2016, seizing investigative materials.
Her successor, Xavier Becerra, filed 15 felony charges against Daleiden and Merritt in March 2017 for allegedly recording conversations without consent.
In January 2025, both entered a no-contest plea to one felony recording charge each under a settlement with California. The agreement carried no jail time, fines, or admission of wrongdoing. Under its terms, the charge would convert to a misdemeanor, then be dismissed and expunged — a process Ferrall completed on April 2.
"The final charge has been DISMISSED and the case completely expunged," Daleiden said in a statement that day.
Defense attorney Steve Cooley — a former Los Angeles County district attorney — said he had "never seen such a blatant exercise of selective investigation and vindictive prosecution" in his five decades of legal practice.
He remarked that the California Attorneys General who launched the case and pursued it for nearly a decade ”should be ashamed for weaponizing their office to pursue people who were merely exposing illegality associated with the harvesting and sale of fetal body parts."