A first-hand account at the Gosnell trial (since the media won't tell you about it)

DRTL Vice President, David Williams, attended the Kermit Gosnell trial in Philadelphia this morning.  Since you won't hear the story from the mainstream media, here is his first-hand account of the horror he heard and witnessed while in the stands:

I am on the train now informed that the 33 minute ride to Philadelphia will take one hour.  Is the Conductor yanking my chain?  No, we stop 16 times and this will be my last train ride.  We travel through very seedy sections of towns, some I never knew existed.  Trash is strewn along the banks of the train tracks.  I feel like I am riding through a city dump.  Finally, we arrive at Suburban Station.  After stumbling through the city streets like the tourist hick I am, I finally enter the Court room at 10:37 AM.  There are still 16 jurors of the 17 Moira and I saw on our first day attending the Gosnell Trial.

Ashly Baldwin is on the stand and testifies that she had only received a few minutes training, as a 17 year old High School student, before she was giving anesthesia to patients.  My notes include a quote from her, "the babies flinched and went into the waste bin." She went on to say that "Gosnell would have her push down on the mother's stomachs and the baby would come out in pieces, sometimes the mother would be awake."  "Gosnell kept jars of feet and hands which he claimed would be picked up by schools for research."  Ashly (I saw no  "e" on the chart) said she never saw anyone pick up the jars for research.  She saw the baby in the infamous picture breathing, his chest moving.  Gosnell did not require the 24 hour consent forms required by Pennsylvania law.  He backdated them.  He also would have Ashly call someone named Vicki in Delaware to get funding for Delaware patients. Gosnell fabricated Delaware addresses for Pennsylvania patients in order to obtain this funding.  Lunch Break 11:40.

I met John Mullane of "Greater Philadelphia Media", who apparently took my picture.  He shared that he is very pro-life and that his (uncle?) is John Stanton who has been in the pro-life movement in Delaware County since the 60's.  I also met Andree' Seu Peterson from "World Magazine", a very pleasant Christian lady who files a daily report. 

Also while at lunch, I located the short route to Suburban Station, very close to the Court House.  I didn't need to wander the city earlier had I been aware of it's proximity.  I spoke to an old ABC photographer I met on the street and asked him why the News Media is not covering the sensational trial of a mass murderer.  He said: "women are now editors and are more interested in doing reports on breast cancer or stories about kittens than reporting the news." He went on to say they cover opening day and the verdict, leaving the rest to low paid internet watchers.  I pressed him about a media bias and he agreed that was part of it.

After lunch I cornered the D.A. and told him that we in the pro-life community are praying for his success.  He said, "thank you, I appreciate that."

Andree' from "World Magazine" told me that at lunch in the Reading Terminal she found dollar bills on the floor and thought of purchasing something but decided instead to ask the Lord who she should give the money to.  She walked outside, saw a man with no legs, and said "The Lord gave me this money to give to you."  He replied, "thank you Jesus and then said, "thanks to you also." 

While waiting for the jury to return I noticed the African American guard who escorted Gosnell back in, helping him to his seat, and twice patting him on the back as they smiled pleasantly at each other. 

The Trial finally resumes at 1:25 PM.

Cross examination of Ashly Baldwin.  McMahon, still hacking and coughing as he was last week, begins.  Ashly Baldwin states that her mother had also worked for Gosnell.  McMahon stresses that "her own mother brought her to work there." (Implying, it must have been a nice place).  Ashly started working there in September of 2006 on a study release program from school.  From other sources I believe she was 15 at this time.  Her job was comforting girls and cleaning up.  McMahon keeps hammering away about Gosnell's mentoring of Ashly.  Ashly goes on to say that she "had to step up and do more because the staff was leaving." When speaking of her ultra sound use McMahon used the word fetus once and then said "to see the size of the baby."  His coughing and hacking interrupts every third of fourth sentence.  Baldwin's mother left Gosnell's clinic at some time to tend to Ashly's ailing grandmother.  McMahon says to Ashly, "you wouldn't work in a place that kills or hurts children or babies would you?" Ashly replies, "its not my nature to work in a place that kills children but it was my job."

McMahon calls them babies again.  "You indicated that you would see babies precipitated in the toilets. You don't know the age of these children that had precipitated, did you?"  He then asked, did you see repeat customers who would come back year after year?  Ashly said, "they came back all the time, even in the same year." 

McMahon: "The baby that made the noise, the baby in the basin balled up in the fetal position made a movement shrugging his shoulders."  Again, he said baby, child, baby.  The second baby you witnessed made a quick arm thrust.  McMahon was trying to convince the jury that these were dead baby muscle spasms as Gosnell insisted.  He asked Ashly if she accepted this premise.  She said, "somewhat."

Ashly tells McMahon she told her mother a joke Gosnell made that the baby could have walked her home.  She repeated this twice more, unsolicited.  McMahon closed with a statement that Gosnell used Digoxin to stop the heart so the baby won't be born alive.

Redirect: The D.A.: Were the babies alive?

                Ashly: Yes.

                The D.A.: You were confused because the doctor said the babies would be dead but they were breathing, alive?  Ashly replied, "yes."

2:25: Ashly's testimony ends.  There seems to have been a time constraint which caused some consternation between the D.A. and the Defense.

During the break Andree' asked me do I think the pro-life community would think it better if Gosnell is convicted and the public is able to wash their hands of this mess or better that he walks and the public has to contend with the horror of what they have wrought.  I mull this good question for just a second and reply, "he is the devil and he has to pay."

2:40: Court resumes.

        Erlene Tina Baldwin, Ashly's mother, takes the stand.  She has already pled guilty and is awaiting sentencing, pending her cooperation for, Corrupt organization, Conspiracy to corrupt organization, two felonies and the corruption of the morals of a minor, a misdemeanor.  Also a federal rap for narcotics.  80 years maximum sentence.

 Erlene testifies that "Thompson Institute" placed her at Gosnell's clinic for an "externship," as opposed to an internship in 2002.  She had studied one year to become a medical assistant.  Erlene Baldwin works for Gosnell until 2010 when her mother takes ill.

2:55: I have to leave to catch the slow moving train home as I am scheduled to speak at the Knights of Columbus State Meeting in New Castle.

April 11, 2013

David Williams