JPL Lawsuit: Judge Keeps Trial Open to Media

A Superior Court Judge has ruled that a trial in which a former employee of Jet Propulsion Laboratory claims he was fired because of religious discrimination can remain open to the media.

On Thursday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ernest Hiroshige reversed his previous ruling to bar audio and video coverage of the JPL employee's testimony about Proposition 8.

"There will be no restrictions on video or audio coverage of this case except as generally provided,'' Hiroshige wrote in a minute order released Thursday. 

However, it appears certain topics are off limits for attorneys to ask certain witnesses about in David Coppedge's religious discrimination case against California Institute of Technology. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

Coppedge believes his views on intelligent design led to his demotion and termination. JPL contends that supervisors received numerous complaints about Coppedge, both about his alleged harassment of co-workers regarding his viewpoints and a lack of flexibility with colleagues on the Cassini mission to Saturn.

Defense attorney Jim Zapp asked the judge to remove media from the court during some of the testimony. Wednesday's hearing about which evidence can be presented in the case was held behind closed doors. Plaintiff attorney William Becker said he is not allowed to disclose which employees may not be asked about "private'' matters, or specify what those matters are. 

Zapp said the ruling accommodates his concerns about privacy issues. 

The trial continues this morning. A headache that Coppedge defined as debilitating precluded him from resuming testimony until 10:30 a.m. He said he believes stress brings on the chronic headaches, which he's suffered for several years.