Having previously been thwarted in a request for personal records of a SpaceX employee who is suing the company, claiming she became pregnant after being coerced into a sexual relationship with a supervisor, the company is now back in court with a new and similar motion.
Plaintiff Michelle Dopak alleges in her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that she suffered discrimination and harassment in the workplace, that Hawthorne-based SpaceX paid her less than male colleagues and retaliated against her for reporting sexual harassment by a manager.
In March, Judge Tony L. Richardson granted Dopak’s motion to quash SpaceX subpoenas for the plaintiff’s medical records, saying the request was too broad. However, the judge said SpaceX can serve subpoenas in the future so long as they are” narrowly tailored to the production of documents which relate to plaintiff’s claimed medical conditions, including emotional distress, which (allegedly resulted) from defendant’s conduct.”
On Friday, SpaceX attorneys filed a motion with Richardson in advance of an Oct. 28 hearing that seek, among other things, medical records related to her alleged emotional distress. However, the SpaceX lawyers state in their court papers that the most recent medical record was from last August.
“Considering that plaintiff continues to maintain that she is medically unable to sit for a deposition, there must be additional medical records … which she has not produced,” the SpaceX lawyers contend in their court papers.
Dopak, who now lives in Florida, also has not turned over metadata even though she did not object to making it available, according to the SpaceX lawyers’ court papers.
“Metadata is particularly important in this case because plaintiff has represented that she took screenshots of certain portions of text messages before retaining counsel and subsequently deleted the underlying messages,” the SpaceX lawyers state in their court papers. “Without metadata, SpaceX cannot verify when Plaintiff took these screenshots or the accuracy of her representations.”
SpaceX has “serious concerns that plaintiff spoliated (damaged) relevant evidence and plaintiff’s failure to produce metadata frustrates SpaceX’s ability to investigate these concerns,” according to the SpaceX attorneys’ pleadings.
Metadata enables computers and users to find, understand and manage information efficiently.
According to the 39-year-old Dopak’s suit filed in March 2024, she was hired in August 2017 as a production coordinator and was paid $5,000 less than a male colleague with the same job who was hired at the same time she was. She maintains she was repeatedly subjected to retaliation after complaining of discrimination that included being wrongfully denied promotion to a scheduler position.
Dopak also alleges a male supervisor convinced her to have sex with him and eventually promoted her to a scheduler position in exchange for continued sexual relations. Dopak believed her career advancement would be impaired if she did not comply with her boss’ alleged demands, the suit states.
The supervisor later offered to pay Dopak $100,000 to have an abortion after she became pregnant with his child, but she refused, the suit states.
Despite upper management’s knowledge of the pregnancy, no disciplinary actions were taken against the married supervisor, according to the lawsuit.
“It was immediately apparent that SpaceX had (the supervisor’s) proverbial back and that (Dopak) needed to remain silent or risk losing her job,” Dopak’s attorneys wrote in court documents.
In its two core businesses, SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches rockets and spacecraft and uses them to provide launch services to various customers located in various states and countries. The firm also provides high speed, low latency satellite internet to customers around the world using its constellation of thousands of satellites in low earth orbit and ground infrastructure.
Trial of Dopak’s case is schedule for April 20, 2027.