A member of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement and fighter pilot working as an F-35 flight instructor for Lockheed Martin claims a spiteful higher-up regularly questioned his religious beliefs, going out of her way to interrupt his observance of Shabbat, and making multiple attempts to convert him to Christianity during an overseas assignment.
That’s according to a federal lawsuit filed by Richard Roland Jones III, whose complaint also accuses the supervisor of – among numerous other things – openly lamenting the fact that their workplace was no longer “whites only.”
Jones always received “superior” work evaluations throughout his three years at the multinational aerospace and defense behemoth, according to the complaint, which says he received a leadership award in 2023 that goes only to those ranked among the top 1 percent of Lockheed Martin employees globally.
But when Jones reported the situation to management, the complaint says the 47-year-old aviator’s concerns were either slow-walked or ignored altogether, until he was finally terminated over ginned-up charges he argues were false and pretextual.
Jones’s lawsuit, which was filed September 2 in U.S. District Court in Maryland and has not been previously reported, contends his mistreatment stemmed from the fact that he “complies with non-traditional Judeo religious beliefs and practices.” It says he was subjected to “systemic discrimination on the basis of his race and religion, including, but not limited to: discriminatory policies, practices, behaviors and procedures; differential treatment; and hostility in the workplace.”
Attorney Leslie Oguchi, who is representing Jones, declined to comment on the case and directed The Independent to the complaint as filed, which she said contained all the information necessary.
In an email on Tuesday, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson said, “In general, it is our company practice not to comment on pending litigation.”
Voicemails, emails and texts to Jones’s former supervisor went unanswered.
Both Lockheed Martin and the supervisor are named as defendants in the suit.
The F-35 is a fifth-generatuuib fighter jet with a per-unit cost that can exceed $100 million. It has a top speed of 1,200 mph, or Mach 1.6, is in use by at least a dozen nations including the United States, and, although the program has been beset by various problems from the start, the F-35 is considered by the U.S. Air Force to be “far and away” the most advanced combat aircraft ever built. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for the F-35, manufacturing the planes with principal partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.
Jones, a Florida resident, was hired by Lockheed Martin in 2021 to work as an F-35 instructor and training operations manager at Misawa Air Base in Japan, roughly 400 miles north of Tokyo. The installation is home to both U.S. and Japanese forces, and Jones was the only Black Hebrew instructor in Lockheed Martin’s entire F-35 training program, according to his complaint.
“As part of [Jones’s] beliefs, he actively practices the Shabbat which prohibits any work from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset,” the complaint explains.
However, it says Jones soon found himself at odds with a senior supervisor from a different unit. The supervisor, a white woman named Heidi Moore, would “purposely and consistently” interrupt Jones while he was observing Shabbat, despite Jones’s “repeated requests that she refrain from active interference from his compliance with the Shabbat, she nevertheless persisted,” the complaint alleges.
The supervisor ratcheted things up even further by calling Jones’s direct supervisor and “questioning his support of [Jones’s] observance of Shabbat,” along with “openly complain[ing] to [Jones’s] direct reports about his religious observances,” the complaint goes on.
In an apparent attempt to catch Jones in a lie, the complaint says the supervisor tasked a U.S. government contractor from another company “to spy on [him] while he was on business travel.” And when it became clear that Jones was indeed committed to his personal beliefs, the supervisor “made several attempts to convert [Jones] to Christianity” during their time abroad.
Beginning in June 2022, the supervisor’s alleged hostility toward Jones intensified, his complaint continues. It says she now subjected Jones to “a pattern and practice of racially discriminatory conduct” that was “designed to undermine [his] work and authority.”
“[The supervisor] sought to assert control over [Jones], despite lacking legitimate supervisory authority, and began stripping him of key duties – transferring those responsibilities to white employees without justification,” the complaint states. “[The supervisor] also subjected [Jones] to heightened scrutiny and inappropriate questioning regarding legitimate business travel, and routinely interrupted and commandeered meetings led by [Jones] in a clear effort to diminish his professional standing.”
She went about it “rudely, offensively[,] and repeatedly,” according to the complaint, which says the supervisor “intimidated and threatened” Jones by peppering him with questions about whether or not he “intended to keep his job” at Lockheed Martin.
“[The supervisor] did not treat white employees this way,” the complaint states.
That October, the supervisor took things to an altogether new level by purposefully “destroying work materials that Jones was required to submit to his superiors,” which the complaint calls “an act of outright sabotage.”
Moreover, Jones was disciplined for an alleged conflict of interest that did not result in any punishment for white employees in the exact same boat, according to the complaint.
And, to add insult to injury, the complaint says Jones discovered that less experienced white pilots under his direct command were earning the same pay as he was.
“When [Jones] raised this pay disparity and requested a salary increase, his request was denied,” the complaint states, calling the unequal treatment “part of a broader, racially hostile environment where [Jones] was repeatedly targeted because he is Black.”
The complaint lays out examples of what Jones says occurred, such as a November 2022 confrontation during which a pair of white employees, one of whom was one of Jones’s direct reports, accused him of being racist “simply for hiring and training Black employees.”
“No such accusations were made when [Jones] hired or trained white employees, who constituted the majority of [Jones’s] direct reports,” according to the complaint, which says the pair described Black workers to Jones as “lazy,” “unethical” and “unprofessional.”
Jones formally disciplined his underling over his conduct, then reported them both to Lockheed Martin HR, which, the complaint claims, “took no action.”
In May 2023, Jones tried again, reporting the ongoing discrimination and harassment to his direct supervisor and Lockheed Martin HR, but was once more met with silence, according to the complaint. Six months later, when nothing had changed, Jones filed an official grievance with Lockheed Martin’s in-house Equal Employment Opportunity division, which downplayed the seriousness of his accusations, the complaint contends. In January 2024, it says the EEO investigator assigned to Jones’s case – having never allowed Jones to present evidence or call witnesses – deemed his assertions of bigotry “unsubstantiated,” and cleared the supervisor of any wrongdoing.
Seeking revenge, the supervisor “collaborated, conspired, and confederated” with two of Jones’s direct reports who he had previously disciplined for workplace bullying and timecard fraud, along with a Japanese translator working for Lockheed Martin, to falsely accuse Jones of ethics violations, according to the complaint. As a result, Jones was placed on unpaid suspension, the complaint states. While Jones was out, the complaint says he was informed that the supervisor and her associates had been longing for the days when Lockheed Martin’s offices in Japan were “whites only.”
Finally, Jones went to Lockheed Martin’s director of ethics and VP of ethics about what he had been experiencing, but his concerns were “summarily dismissed,” according to the complaint. In early February 2024, Jones was fired “in retaliation” for protesting the way he had allegedly been treated, the complaint states.
The experience left Jones with “severe mental anguish and emotional distress, including, but not limited to, depression, humiliation, embarrassment, stress and anxiety, loss of self-esteem and self-confidence and emotional pain and suffering,” the complaint concludes.
He is now asking a court to declare Lockheed Martin’s employment practices illegal, that its actions constitute an unlawful civil conspiracy and issue a permanent injunction against the company from engaging in discriminatory behavior. Jones is also seeking back pay, front pay, lost benefits and prejudgment interest, plus attorneys’ fees, court costs and compensatory damages, nominal damages and punitive damages to be determined by a jury.
