Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Melvin Galloway, testified in the civil trial of Planned Parenthood v. The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) on Friday. He told the court that Planned Parenthood’s assets total about $1.2 billion, but they are suing CMP to cover the cost of bills for security measures they have taken since the CMP undercover videos were released.
Pro-Life San Francisco told Live Action News that Galloway, who began working for Planned Parenthood just three and a half months before CMP began releasing the undercover videos, said that his responsibilities include overseeing the financial and security operations of the organization. Pro-Life San Francisco told Live Action News that within days of the first video — featuring Deborah Nucatola, former Medical Director for Planned Parenthood — was released, Galloway hired a bodyguard for her. He admitted that he wondered if Planned Parenthood was involved in illegally selling fetal body parts. “You ask yourself: what did we do? What happened?” he said.
He told the court he began to worry about upcoming Planned Parenthood events and approved the hiring of the security and intelligence company KROLL to help investigate how CMP journalists gained access to Planned Parenthood events and to secure upcoming events. He also approved the hiring of Thacher Associates to put better detection protocols into Planned Parenthood operations. Jeremy Kamras, attorney for Planned Parenthood, showed invoices for these security expenses to the jury. One invoice, according to Pro-Life San Francisco, was for $55,000 for an event that included over 1,000 people. Another security invoice for the “Power Pink” — a political event — was six-figures.
“We’re not used to what was at the time a complex, social engineered strategy,” said Galloway. Essentially, they were unprepared for David Daleiden and his CMP team. He went on to say that vetting is “not an easy process” because their slogan – “Care, No Matter What” – implies openness, which is, according to him, hard to balance with a need for tight security.
READ: Revealed in court: Planned Parenthood email calls body parts harvesting ‘mutually beneficial’
Some of the increased security included adding professional security teams at events as a visual deterrent, ID readers like those seen in airports, social media screenings, and subscriptions to reputation.com.
Galloway said the security groups “help us identify bad actors ahead of events who would do us harm.” He said that by “harm” he meant “in terms of brand – who we are.”
However, under cross-examination by defense attorney Charles LiMandri, it was revealed that at least a couple of the security invoices shown to the jury were dated before 2015, which is prior to when the videos were released. Galloway admitted that those invoices should not have been listed in the damages that Planned Parenthood is suing CMP for.
LiMandri said he was surprised that Planned Parenthood didn’t already have ID scanners in use before CMP went undercover.
“They actually were available,” said Galloway.
LiMandri also asked about an email from the CEO of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, Vicki Cowart, in which she placed blame on the Planned Parenthood national office for allowing the organization to be infiltrated by CMP. She listed red flags she found for “BioMax” – the fake tissue procurement company created by CMP. Those red flags included the fact that Google Street View showed a tree at the address for BioMax and couldn’t figure out the suite number. In addition. the P.O. Box “BioMax” gave was in a nearby building in Long Beach despite the fact that the “BioMax” office was 16 miles away in Norwalk.
“We already do these simple steps, and more, for our own local interactions,” Cowart wrote. “Too bad it’s after the fact.”
LiMandri also pointed out that David Daleiden’s fake ID was printed on an inkjet printer with a high school photo of him. Galloway said he wasn’t aware of this. LiMandri also asked Galloway, “Generally if a company is exposed as doing wrong, would that harm their brand?” Galloway said he agreed but that his concern wasn’t about what Nucatola said but the infiltration of Planned Parenthood itself. This is in contradiction to statements he has made in the past, according to CMP. LiMandri pointed out that 20/20 had used similar tactics in 2000 to learn about the sale of fetal body parts and therefore Planned Parenthood should always have been swiping ID cards.
Katie Short, another attorney for the defense, pointed to the fact that abortion industry conferences have “a mere handful of new vendors” applying at a time and should be able to properly vet them. CMP shouldn’t be expected to pay for security upgrades because Planned Parenthood failed to follow proper vetting procedures. She asked Galloway if CMP made it easier for others to follow in their footsteps.
“It would make it harder, I think,” he responded.
READ: Attorney for Planned Parenthood investigators: Court is ‘handicapping us in major ways’
When defense attorney Horatio Mihet had his opportunity to cross-exam Galloway, he asked about PPFA’s budget, and Galloway said total assets are about $1.2 billion dollars.
“You’re not telling the jury that Planned Parenthood doesn’t have the resources to implement these various security measures,” Mihet said.
Galloway responded, “We paid the bills. Every dollar spent on this is a dollar we can’t spend on healthcare.” When asked if Planned Parenthood could have afforded to pay for the security upgrades before the undercover videos came out, Galloway said, “I can’t say.”
The day in court ended with the continuation of the video deposition of Tram Nguyen, Director of the Ambulatory Surgical Center at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. Defense attorney Peter Breen asked Nguyen about an email from “Robert Sarkis” – Daleiden’s alias. She said she didn’t remember the email, which included a contract in which “BioMax” included hundreds of dollars in fees for certain fetal organs. In another email, Breen showed that a colleague asked Nguyen what she thought of “BioMax” and if she wanted to partner with the procurement company. She said that she did want to partner with them.
“Have you had any threats made against you?” asked Breen.
“Nothing like a terroristic threat,” she replied. “It’s more ‘you’re going to hell’ or ‘I’m going to kill you’.” She said those are more of a “general hate” that she had become accustomed to.
The trial resumes next week.
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