A nursing supervisor who worked for Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is suing her former employer, alleging she was fired in January just months before her retirement benefits vested because she objected on religious grounds to being vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Marilee Males‘ Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges wrongful termination, religious creed discrimination, retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination and retaliation and a violation of the state Labor Code. She seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
A representative for the county did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit filed Tuesday, May 2.
Males was hired in May 2018 and was a supervising health facilities evaluator for nursing in a Department of Health facility. She received about $182,135 in annual pay and benefits and oversaw the work of about 10 nurses and four secretaries. She coordinated visits for various facilities, completed surveys, reviewed reports and addressed provider concerns.
In September 2021, Males requested an exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine policy “on account of sincerely held religious beliefs,” the suit states.
“This demand for an exemption is based on my deeply held religious beliefs pursuant to my reliance on teachings in the Holy Bible,” Males wrote.
In March 2022, Males received a five-day suspension notice for allegedly not testing for the virus even though she had indeed done so, the suit states. The next day she was given another advisement of a five-day suspension, this time for “failure to comply with the vaccination requirement,” the suit states. Males subsequently asked for a reconsideration of the denial of her bid for a religious exemption, but the request was denied in December, the suit states.
“Plaintiff was given 14 calendar days from the date of that notice to submit proof of receipt of first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine,” the suit states.
Males received a letter Jan. 25 stating she was being terminated for her “failure to comply with the notice of vaccination requirement, which came four months before her benefits vested in which she would have received about $1,300 per month after retirement, the suit states.
Males also has lost future earnings and she suffers from anxiety, nausea, insomnia, headaches, depression and post-traumatic stress because of losing her job, the suit states.
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You can't fix stupid if you tried says
During the pandemic, TCM had a film called “The Killer That Stalked New York(1950), based on a true story. It was about a smallpox epidemic caused by a woman who smuggled diamonds from Cuba (for added interest).
“Columbia paid director/producer Allen H. Miner $40,000 for the rights to this story, which is based on a real smallpox outbreak in New York City in 1947. Millions of New Yorkers were vaccinated against the disease – without causing panic.” from IMDb.
You never heard of that oubreak? Maybe bceause of the last sentence above. The governmen vaccinated millions of New Yorkers and the epidemic was ended. Yet, that terrible George Soros owned government did that. Gee. How come we can’t do things effectively now?
We didn’t have idiots and social media back then to eff things up. Y’sse, the country is dumbing down to the lowest MTG level.
Fern Street P.O. Box says
Wilh so many smart people commenting on this “scientific” issue, why is the Antelope Valley so stupid? I doubt many AV natives work in aerospace.
Asking for Rex.
Mike says
I was a fighter pilot
I.M. Nutz says
Just because we vote for a mayor who thinks bird sounds will lower crime citywide and Bangladesh will disappear doesn’t mean we’re stupid. We like spending $10 million dollars to see LEAPS fly overhead. Our roads also have some very cool black paint on them.
Who are you calling stupid?
S.Sotomayor, JD says
hmmm.
scientific explanations being blocked in favor of polemic.
free speech?
Amy Barrett, JD says
That’s better.
Look at how many tries it took, though.
FullyVaxed says
No sympathy for her at all. Take the shot as mandated by her employer, do her time and retire. Then use her personal choice not to get anymore of the shots.
David Parker says
Hey you can have the one they want for me. Kari Mullis, Nobel Prize winner and inventor of the PCR process – it was never a “test” for anything, merely a process for cloning strands of DNA – said virology is pure fiction. Indistinguishable among other dust particles, not capable of movement, never isolated, never “purified,” viruses are pure speculation. Even Jonas Salk, Mr. Polio, recanted in his final years, realizing he had proven nothing at all.
LOL, you dum dum says
Tim Scott says
There is nothing about this matter in the bible, and I will bet money that this woman has received numerous vaccinations throughout her life and career and never blinked an eye over “sincerely held religious beliefs” and how they might apply.
Jr says
Hey Tim I agree at the same time SHE IS GROWN… SHE HAS A RIGHT TO TAKE A SHOT OR NOT!
Tim Scott says
Sure, and an employer with workers who contact the public during a pandemic has a right to limit who they employ to people they think are taking appropriate precautions.
A person has the right to decide when they need a shower, but an employer has the right to not employ stinky people. Rights hit their limit when other people’s rights are impacted. That’s civilization.
Salk It says
Agree. But now that we know that the injection does not prevent the spread or infection of COVID, it should no longer be a requirement. Taking the shot does nothing except offer a layer of protection (reduced symptoms) to the person taking it The “limiting other people’s rights” is off the table. Also, no one should be subject to taking an injection with less than a year’s testing, especially something like MRNA. The technology may be 20 years old, but MRNA has never been distributed on such a mass scale and certainly was not tested to the levels that traditional vaccines were
Tim Scott says
Whether it “should no longer be a requirement” is irrelevant to the case at hand.
F the Vax says
She should sue them for forcing an improperly tested vaccine on her. No vaccine was rushed like this one. They should all be sued for medical malpractice. John Hopkins University says 5 to 10 years or longer is what typically is the test period. Sue the government and the vaccine makers. Like her, I’m not going to be anyone’s guinea pig.
Larry Elder (the honest one, not the radio guy) says
Please explain how it “does not prevent the spread or infection of COVID”
There have been hundreds of mutations tracked, all of which have been assessed for morbidity and mortality, and prioritized for vaccine development according to a severity rating based in morbidity and mortality for each individual variant.
If this was your automobile, you’d probably want a recall for a brake problem remedied much sooner that a problem with the radio…you know…because if the brakes fail you could die, but if the radio doesn’t work, you can’t listen to Larry Elder, so no danger.
David Parker says
There was no “pandemic.” The whole dog and pony show was to destroy the general worldwide increase in prosperity and people questioning exactly why they pay so much for bureaucrats. It may also have had something to do with providing a pretext for changing voter registration, balloting, and ballot counting to defeat Donald Trump. At any rate, the worldwide mortality rate did not change. All the millions of deaths reported are the normal mortality rate, e.g., the annual average for heart attack deaths in the US alone is 650,000. That is NORMAL. Add pneumonia, influenza. etc/. and discover that deaths from these maladies were merely attributed to “covid.”
Tony Fow Chee says
“general worldwide increase in prosperity”
Data please.
“It may also have had something to do with providing a pretext for changing voter registration, balloting, and ballot counting to defeat Donald Trump.”
LOL. Trumpist camps out on 8 month old post.
and then this peach: “All the millions of deaths reported are the normal mortality rate, e.g., the annual average for heart attack deaths in the US alone is 650,000. That is NORMAL. Add pneumonia, influenza. etc/. and discover that deaths from these maladies were merely attributed to “covid.”
Excess mortality. Look it up, Einstein. To explain it to a numbskull, you might simply state that “a new deadly cause of death has been added to the misery of the elderly, the inform, and those with conditions that make them vulnerable. Medical professionals take a friggin oath…to preserve life, just like soldiers and cops take oaths to assure they remain dutiful.
god, you are such a gnome.
Timpocrisy says
Well the Covid Vaccine is produced using replicated cells from an aborted fetus. And I’m pretty sure the Holy Bible and those who adhere to it would find that contrary to their belief system. Just citing the facts.
Food for thought:
Why would a bacteria on Mars be considered “proof of life” when a heartbeat on Earth isn’t?
C. Thomas, JD says
Two things.
One is that the ‘aborted fetus’ vaccine claim is misleading and patently false for the moderna and other RNA vaccines. Don;t make claims based in science if you do not understand the science or the technology.
two is that bacteria is life, but bacteria do not receive citizenship not civil rights. Your equivocation of bacteria and human tissue is degrading to humans.
As far as ‘heartbeat’ or ‘6 weeks’ or whatever….all those are somewhat random determinations by someone ‘without agency’ (look it up) making claims about already settled laws of parenthood prior to the ages of consent and majority (look that up too).
Timpocrisoy says
@CThomas-1. You’re a complete liar. I stated “replicated” from “aborted fetal cells” which is an absolute truth and verifiable medical fact. You’re the one with the comprehension problem. Source:
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/coronavirus/docs/vaccine/VaccineDevelopment_FetalCellLines.pdf
2. The law is far from settled. The minds of the US Supreme Court, which are clearly far superior to yours, rectified the error of the Roe v. Wade ruling, effectively moving the issue back to the states and out of the preview of Constitutional protection. Lastly, there are numerous medical journals discussing when life begins and a general consensus of what stage of pregnancy that it occurs. The left wishes to pretend those scientific medical journals don’t exist and they chose to cite sources favorable to their cause.
You sir are a deplorable human for even defending the policy of murder of unborn children, which consequently, eradicates more minority lives than any policy currently in existence. And that is what you want to hang your hat on?
S. Alito, JD says
1. Conveniently ignored the proviso stated. The RNA based vaccines, in production, have no fetal tissue extraction. Why are you fabricating? Why do you seem angry? The only produced vaccine that did contain the fetal extracts from long long long ago was the one from JNJ. And, so what if it does? That old science using that fetal cell line as basis – proven through the common TDAP administered over many decades, has been – proven – effective against common viruses that are horribly debilitating and deadly. Why argue so profoundly against that? do you really hate children that much?
2.lol. we’ll see…it will take a while before SCOTUS has to address the assertion you have made about states rights, but t will eventually land there. As far as who ‘0wns’ a child…you conveniently ignored the issue stated. “Agency”. How is it that ‘states’ can usurp the right of parents to choose their children’s destiny? Have you ever intervened in a child’s actions while a parent was nearby, or present? You can be assured that you have zero influence if th parent is truly supportive of their child. So, um…butt out.
S. Sotomayor, JD says
Maybe I can help.
The CDC has a more exhaustive description of how the fetal cell lines from a female donor way back in 1973 called HEK293. That single immortalized line has been used to develop life saving vaccines ever since. Sometimes it is used to do testing, as with the RNA vaccines, and sometimes it is used to develop the components of the produced vaccine itself. C. Thomas is correct in that the produced vaccine does not contain any remnants nor fragments of the fetal cells. The medical community – worldwide – have developed standard tests that use the HEK293 line as a benchmark to determine potency and efficacy, kind of like the way horsepower is related to the capacity for horses from long ago (18th century) were able to lift water…we still use that benchmark today. The LADPH info is not false, but it is quite superficial, and lacking details of scientific background that would anger simple people who want detailed answers but cannot spare the time to do their own research.
As far as settled law, the SCOTUS toss back is a renovation of an experiment started long ago. I believe C. Thomas is letting us know that parents are…and perhaps should be… the only ones with authority over their children born or unborn. To advocate for something else is to give the state authority over personal affairs that are so intimate as to be serious breaches of privacy assured by 4th amendment. There also seems to be confusion about the ‘life’ definition and citizenship. Inasmuch as nobody is a citizen until they have a certificate of live birth, the incursion into the unborn’s pre-citizenship status becomes a way for the state to ‘own’ a citizen prior to it’s existence. Maybe this could work in favor of illegal immigrants carrying ‘anchor babies’, since the position assumes that the preborn are in fact citizens in advance of their live birth.
I wish you luck
S. Sotomayor, JD says
Maybe I can help.
The CDC has a more exhaustive description of how the fetal cell lines from a female donor way back in 1973 called HEK293. That single immortalized line has been used to develop life saving vaccines ever since. Sometimes it is used to do testing, as with the RNA vaccines, and sometimes it is used to develop the components of the produced vaccine itself. C. Thomas is correct in that the produced vaccine does not contain any remnants nor fragments of the fetal cells. The medical community – worldwide – have developed standard tests that use the HEK293 line as a benchmark to determine potency and efficacy, kind of like the way horsepower is related to the capacity for horses from long ago (18th century) were able to lift water…we still use that benchmark today. The LADPH info is not false, but it is quite superficial, and lacking details of scientific background that would anger simple people who want detailed answers but cannot spare the time to do their own research.
As far as settled law, the SCOTUS toss back is a renovation of an experiment started long ago. I believe C. Thomas is letting us know that parents are…and perhaps should be… the only ones with authority over their children born or unborn. To advocate for something else is to give the state authority over personal affairs that are so intimate as to be serious breaches of privacy assured by 4th amendment. there also seems to be confusion about the ‘life’ definition and citizenship. Inasmuch as nobody is a citizen until they have a certificate of live birth, the incursion into the unborn’s pre-citizenship status becomes a way for the state to ‘own’ a citizen prior to it’s existence. Maybe this could work in favor of illegal immigrants carrying ‘anchor babies’, since the position assumes that the preborn are in fact citizens in advance of their live birth.
I wish you luck
David Parker says
Babies are babies from the moment of conception, not potential people but people with potential. A “fetus” is an unborn animal.
Hoss Cartwright. MD says
the common scientific categorization of the cellular growth from germ cells to a living breathing human are as follows:
Blastocyst
Zygote
Embryo
Fetus
then, after emergence from birth canal/uterus: Citizen/human.
Prior to emergence from the uterus, the ‘citizen/human’ has only the rights imbued by it’s agent, the sole proprietor of its welfare, the owner of the uterus…it’s mother.
it is appalling that another human attempts to reach into the sacred space of a mother’s uterus.
Larry H. Parker, esq. says
Until born, a fetus is not a citizen.
As Hamlet bemoaned, “Therein lies the rub”
The only citizen with rights over the fetus is the mother. This has been supported in case law for many decades.
Larry H. Parker, esq. says
as it is unborn, it is not a citizen, and it has no way to express itself as a non-citizen, a sort of illegal alien residing inside the body of an existing citizen, and thus the mother who is keeper, owner and user of the ‘container’, is the only citizen even remotely responsible for the potential.
to allow the incursion of the state into that private space violates several human rights, as well as a few constitutional rights.
SCOTUS will eventually get around to reaffirming this.
C. Something Saysomething says
The bible, though often a good source for ethical guidance, may not always be a fully wholesome guide for serving Christ in our modern world. Read some of the things in Leviticus and Numbers and the Bible becomes a strange way to behave.
I like the origin story, where the bible says we get kicked out fo paradise (Eden) because we eat from the tree of knowledge. To me, knowing is deemed a curse that puts us above the animals because we are aware of our knowledge. The knowledge means we actually experience ethical dilemmas – constantly. The ethical dilemmas are how we torture ourselves or how we become greater selves, rising above the torture. It just depends upon the personality.
Does this lady deserve to be fired? Probably. She was reticent, and was doing what no wise employee would do – defy the people writing her check. In private industry – especially our beloved American Small Business environment – doing that is assurance that you will not be ‘beloved’ by the boss.
Still, we have a weird structure for public employees…they can repeatedly nuisance the taxpaying public individually and garner individual settlements that cheat taxpayers because attorney representation is an expensive venture, rigged to ever higher returns.
Templer says
Well said. And I might add to that statement. By law your employer doesn’t have to like you, a very effective firewall in small business labor disputes. Now I’m going too duck now.
Salk It says
No one should have been forced to take an injection of something that had been developed and tested for less than a year. I should have been optional. Besides, it is not a vaccination in the traditional sense, like polio, chicken pox, flu, etc. It was an injection of MRNA, which is different from a traditional vaccine.
I received four MRNA injections. That was my choice. No one should have been forced to get this injection with such short time of testing. We now no that the injection does not stop the spread or infection. It appears to reduce the symptoms of COVID. Let people decide if they want it or not.
This nursing supervisor deserved back pay and a return to employment.
Don "Mushroom" Drumpf says
Lol.
“does not stop the spread or infection”
This position has no ‘control’ from which to judge the claim. Profoundly unscientific.
Thomas says
I am fully vaxxed and still got COVID. The symptoms were mild. You can still get and spread COVID with the vax. Many people have.
Aquinas says
oh dum dum.
multiple variants means that you can be reinfected by what is essentially not the same virus that you had before.
David Parker says
Would you take a jab that you believe will alter your metabolic functions and kill you? The people who know what is in the jab concoction sure as hell don’t take it. Convince me Gates, Fauci, Biden, et al., actually got the jab concocted for the average American or African or Asian? No way Jose! The fake Biden jab nurse didn’t even take the cover off the needle, figured we were too dense to notice.
Louis Circo says
Agree. Your argument is sound. Whether the jab is a true vaccine or not and whether it helps with Covid symptoms or not is still up for debate as far as I’m concerned. But no one should have been forced to take something with such little testing, especially now that we know, as everyone should have known then, that the “vaccine” is potentially seriously harmful. Let this woman retire with full benefits. When did America become Nazi Germany?
Stanley "Lon" Steamer says
agree to disagree. to reward misbehavior is wrong in any ethical analysis.
she should be left to ponder the grave error she brought upon nobody but herself.
another thing: it is a vaccine according to the worldwide medical community, maybe not you, but opinion does not cure disease.
forced? well, when your boss (or the entire organization) asks you to do something, is it a good idea to say no?
the ludicrous behavior is supported by a well intended but ‘gamed by lawyers’ collective bargaining system that encourages brinkmanship – we see it over and over: a eecently deposed Sheriff, a whole slew of dissenting ADAs, etc.
Tim Scott says
LOL…now that we know, through ‘human trials’ conducted on the grandest scale in the history of ever, that the vaccine is NOT “seriously harmful,” your claim reveals that you do not care about the facts and just want to post nonsense.
Templer says
I agree, I’ve had all of the covid shots, my wife won’t. It’s her choice.
Tim Scott says
Fair, assuming your wife wasn’t employed in a health care environment or somewhere that she could have become a massive spread point. Putting you at risk is an acceptable option, but employers, particularly an employer in the health care business, have an obligation to protect their employees and customers. This has all been settled law since vaccine requirements were put on children being enrolled in schools.
S. Sotomayor, JD says
@timpocrisoy
The CDC has a more exhaustive description of how the fetal cell lines from a female donor way back in 1973 called HEK293. That single immortalized line has been used to develop life saving vaccines ever since. Sometimes it is used to do testing, as with the RNA vaccines, and sometimes it is used to develop the components of the produced vaccine itself. C. Thomas is correct in that the produced vaccine does not contain any remnants nor fragments of the fetal cells. The medical community – worldwide – have developed standard tests that use the HEK293 line as a benchmark to determine potency and efficacy, kind of like the way horsepower is related to the capacity for horses from long ago (18th century) were able to lift water…we still use that benchmark today. The LADPH info is not false, but it is quite superficial, and lacking details of scientific background that would anger simple people who want detailed answers but cannot spare the time to do their own research.
As far as settled law, the SCOTUS toss back is a renovation of an experiment started long ago. I believe C. Thomas is letting us know that parents are…and perhaps should be… the only ones with authority over their children born or unborn. To advocate for something else is to give the state authority over personal affairs that are so intimate as to be serious breaches of privacy assured by 4th amendment. there also seems to be confusion about the ‘life’ definition and citizenship. Inasmuch as nobody is a citizen until they have a certificate of live birth, the incursion into the unborn’s pre-citizenship status becomes a way for the state to ‘own’ a citizen prior to it’s existence. Maybe this could work in favor of illegal immigrants carrying ‘anchor babies’, since the position assumes that the preborn are in fact citizens in advance of their live birth.