BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Santa Clara County has agreed to pay $192,783 to three employees who lost their jobs because they refused to take the Covid vaccine, court records show.
The employees want the county to pay another $2.1 million in attorney fees.
The county settled a lawsuit from the employees rather than going to a jury trial on Monday. The case was filed by nurses Maria Ramirez and Elizabeth Baluyut and air conditioning mechanic Tom Davis.
The employees said they were uncomfortable because vaccines were tested on fetal cells from abortions, and they believe abortion is murder.
“Some (employees) also have sincerely held religious beliefs, rooted in Scripture, that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and that they cannot place a pharmaceutical substance into their temples,” their lawsuit said.
Ramirez, Baluyut and Davis said they didn’t follow then-county chief health official Dr. Sara Cody’s August 2021 public health order that required up-to-date vaccinations for workers in high-risk settings like hospitals. Employees said the vaccine mandate was applied inconsistently — for example, unvaccinated jail guards worked with infected inmates.
Sheriff’s Lt. Adam Valle was scheduled to testify about his experience working in a high-risk job while unvaccinated.
The county offered religious and medical exemptions, but employees had to apply to completely different positions that were often demotions, the suit said.
Ramirez, Baluyut and Davis will split $120,000 and get paid for sick and vacation days they used after losing their jobs.
Their attorneys said they spent 3,309 hours on the lawsuit since Feb. 18, 2022.
The lawsuit was led by Rachele Byrd from the law firm Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP. Hourly rates for partners go up to $1,250 per hour, she said.
33 more employees are suing
Federal Judge Beth Freeman will consider the request for attorney fees at a hearing in San Jose on June 25.
The county is facing another federal lawsuit from 33 former employees — nurses, counselors, jail guards, receptionists and more — who have similar claims as the case that settled. They’re also in settlement talks with lawyers for county.
Freeman considered combining the cases in August but said the lawsuits involve different people and would interfere with the scheduled trial.
Changing the minimum job qualifications for existing employees that are off probation with a vaccine mandate and not allowing for exemptions is illegal.
Sara Cody was the poster child for governmental overreach. Zero sympathy.
Time to pay.
WOW! Took 6 years but it looks like it’s finally time to have some difficult conversations about covid, the protocols and “mandates” from unelected officials. Were the policies actually science based or fear driven? Was there financial conflict of interest? The shutdowns killed small business deemed “not essential”. How much fraud was in the covid loans? How about the Fauci hospital protocol of using remdesivir, a drug that the NIH eventually admitted in 2023 can cause acute kidney failure for people with preexisting kidney conditions. The massive amount of Medicare money that went to hospitals for following covid protocols cannot be just a coincidence when Kaiser just settled with the DOJ in January 2026 for “exaggerated patient claims” for $556 million! Were safety steps skipped for “Warp Speed”? Were there provisions in public funding to push masks and vaccines on everyone? Was it all about health or wealth? Which county was the first to shut down in March 2020? Was it Santa Clara county? I wonder if PAUSD is paying attention because they “mandated” everyone get “fully vaccinated” or a “test daily” policy to all their employees in July 2021 under Don and Trent. Time will tell all, but till then, hopefully we can finally have these honest discussions respectfully with our neighbors.
It seems ridiculous that a dispute like this would result in a $2.1 million legal bill. I think the county is getting ripped off by hiring outside contract attorneys to handle lawsuits like this. You’d think that mediation or arbitration would result in the same outcome at a lower cost to taxpayers. Or maybe the county government just exists to take money from taxpayers to hand it over to special interests, like lawyers, unions, politically connected charities, contractors who donate to candidates, etc.
Local government is run by and for lawyers. Why would anyone want to go into any other field?
Covid-the grift that keeps on giving. Sometimes I wish god was real so it could tell people to just get over themselves and do what’s best for the greater good and help each other out in times of need. You know-like that precious book says?