LOS ANGELES – Headaches prevented David Coppedge on Monday from finishing his direct testimony in his case against the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Coppedge complained of headaches for much of the day, and had previously testified to suffering from migraines. He stepped down from the witness stand at 3 p.m. and didn’t return Monday.
“I don’t think he is going to be able to testify,” said William J. Becker, Jr., Coppedge’s attorney. “He has got to sleep it off.”
Coppedge was reclining in a roof top lounge late Monday with his suit jacket shrouding his face. He is expected to take the stand Tuesday morning and could conclude direct testimony by noon (Tuesday), Becker said.
Coppedge, a former systems administrator for the science lab, is suing JPL for wrongful termination. He claims the science lab laid him off in 2011 due to his expressed belief in intelligent design, which has been criticized as being based in religion and having no place in serious science discussion by much of the scientific community.
Coppedge claims intelligent design is not based in religion and his advocacy of the theory was part of appropriate discussions of science at JPL since the lab is engaged in seeking the origins of the universe and life on Earth.
Until the sudden break in testimony Monday, Coppedge had testified that his co-workers at the science lab distributed political cartoons and freely expressed both political and religious views during work hours.
Such privileges, according to Coppedge, were taken away from him by JPL due to his advocacy for intelligent design and his support of California’s 2008 ballot initiative, Proposition 8, which struck down gay marriage.
“You are not to discuss politics and religion in this office, or you will find it difficult to maintain your position here,” Coppedge said Monday, recalling the verbal warning he claims to have received from his direct supervisor Greg Chin in 2009.
Chin admonished Coppedge in March 2009 for distributing two intelligent design DVDs to JPL employees: “Unlocking the Mystery of Life” and the “Privileged Planet.”
Coppedge’s supervisor called the DVDs “religious” in nature and accused Coppedge of harassing co-workers by forcing the DVDs on fellow JPL employees.
“I thought he was trampling on my civil rights and my job was being threatened,” Coppedge said in response to Chin’s warning.
Monday’s testimony also painted JPL as a place where Coppedge’s coworkers freely exchanged political and religious beliefs albeit contrary to his own.
“I had seen cartoons mocking intelligent design, mocking conservatives, mocking President Bush and mocking traditional marriage,” Coppedge said.
“People talked about national affairs and what they thought about candidates” in the offices at JPL, Coppedge added during his testimony Monday.
A self-proclaimed creationist and Christian conservative, Coppedge engaged his co-workers on topics ranging from the Bible, to intelligent design to state judicial candidates.
“I did research some information about judicial candidates because people didn’t know much about the judicial candidates,” Coppedge said. “People (at work) found that helpful.”
On one occasion Coppedge went as far as talking with a co-worker about the “Gospel of Jesus Christ.” He also testified to sharing a DVD called the “Case for Christ” with a fellow employee at Christmas time.
But his attorney said he wouldn’t go as far as to say Coppedge was evangelizing or trying to win converts.
“It wasn’t evangelizing,” Becker said of the DVD. “It was a Christmas present.”
Coppedge filed suit against JPL in April of 2009, initially suing the agency for creating what he termed “a hostile work environment.” Coppedge claimed he was prevented from express his beliefs even though other employees could express their beliefs.
Coppedge alleges his lawsuit hastened his layoff in 2011. The case transformed into a wrongful termination suit following Coppedge’s layoff in spring 2011.
The agency, which contracts with NASA, said Coppedge was laid off during a routine reduction in staff where 246 employees were let go; one in three employees working on the Cassini Mission with Coppedge were laid off during the same round of job cuts.
David Coppedge testified Monday that JPL supervisors only became critical of his work after he filed his initial suit against the science lab in 2009.
Several exhibits, including positive performance evaluations, were submitted Monday as evidence in support of Coppedge’s claim.
In the evaluations, Coppedge was praised for his work as a systems administrator and was lauded for his technical skills.
The tone of Coppedge’s JPL work reviews began to change in 2009 following the March 2009 incident with Chin, around the time Coppedge brought the suit.
“Greg (Chin) came down hard on me that people were making complaints, and that people said I was micromanaging them,” Coppedge said in court.
But Chin never gave Coppedge details about the nature and the exact circumstances of the complaint.
JPL officials also claimed Coppedge’s work was sloppy, but the plaintiff said he was not aware of any gross errors that would have prompted such statements in his performance review.
“It was all vague,” Coppedge said. “He could not point to any specific instances.”
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