11/4 – Day 15 – PPFA v. CMP Trial Summary

Day 15 of Planned Parenthood’s retaliatory lawsuit against CMP undercover investigators included testimony from a Planned Parenthood-hired accountant and PPFA’s Director of Events and Conferences, Brandon Minow, about the payout Planned Parenthood is seeking for upgrades to its own deficient conference screening and vetting:

  • Greg Regan, a local CPA hired by Planned Parenthood Plaintiffs, testified that Planned Parenthood seeks $630,213 from CMP in the lawsuit to pay for updates to its deficient conference admission protocols. The vast majority of that money is fees to consulting firms, with $44,000 for media monitoring, $108,600 for reviewing PPFA’s vetting practices, $53,000 for security consulting, and $29,000 for guard services for events that CMP investigators didn’t attend.
  • Regan testified that he is not a security expert and that his findings did not indicate whether the security updates were necessary or not. He also admitted that he had no knowledge of what kind of money Planned Parenthood was spending on security costs before the release of the undercover videos.
  • PPFA’s Director of Events and Conferences Brandon Minow revealed PP holds approximately 80 events per year, including fundraisers and 30 or so conferences. Minow revealed most of PP’s events are held at hotels because they attempt to make the space “feel private in the middle of the hustle and bustle of hotel space.”
  • Both Regan and Minow admitted that the reason Planned Parenthood felt it needed to upgrade its screening and vetting protocols was because the undercover videos made typical conference attendees feel uncertain about continuing to attend Planned Parenthood events. This is a clear example of loss of barred “repetitional harm” from the publication of the videos–a loss of consumer confidence resulting from the deficiencies exposed in Planned Parenthood’s conference protocols.

Proceedings continue at 8 A.M. on Tuesday, November 5, in San Francisco Federal District Court at 450 Golden Gate Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102, in Courtroom 2 on Floor 17.