A judge has again ruled against SpaceX in an attempt to obtain medical records of an employee who sued alleging that she became pregnant after being coerced into a sexual relationship with a supervisor.
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 that the company retaliated against her for reporting sexual harassment by a manager.
Judge Tony L. Richardson ruled July 29 that there is no legal basis on which he could grant SpaceX’s motion to compel plaintiff Michelle Dopak to authorize the release of her own medical records.
“The court does not have the power to create additional methods of discovery and will not do so here,” the judge wrote.
The judge added, however, that if SpaceX were to serve requests for Dopak’s medical records, the plaintiff would be obligated to produce all documents in her possession, custody or control.
“As plaintiff can obtain her own medical records, presumably plaintiff would have to produce such documents in response to a request for production of documents from defendant, Richardson further wrote.
In their opposition papers, Dopak’s attorneys called SpaceX’s motion a “waste of judicial resources” that should have been withdrawn immediately after the judge previously quashed subpoenas for the medical records.
SpaceX attorneys had acknowledged that Judge Tony L. Richardson had directed SpaceX to serve subpoenas that are limited to Dopak’s emotional distress and disability claims, according to the plaintiff’s lawyers court papers.
But according to the SpaceX attorneys’ court papers, it was Dopak and not the defense who “continues to waste the court’s and the parties’ resources by stonewalling and forcing motion practice at every turn.”
The SpaceX lawyers further state that their requests were “narrowly tailored” and focused on Dopak’s emotional distress symptoms and claimed disabilities.
In her lawsuit filed in March 2024, Dopak, now 39, says 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, who now lives in Florida, 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.