Engineer Sues Swedlow Over ‘Forced’ Resignation

An engineer who quit his job with a Garden Grove defense contractor sued his former employer Tuesday, alleging he was driven out because he blew the whistle on a scheme to defraud the government.

John A. Trepl II contends that officials of Swedlow Inc. began to pressure him last year after he refused to cooperate in the firm’s alleged scheme to cover up flaws in windshields it manufactured for the B-1B bomber. Trepl also said he alerted the FBI to the case.

In September, Swedlow and one of its vice presidents, Norman Gene Nixon, 53, of Orange were indicted by a federal grand jury on four counts of making false statements to the government.

At their trial in Santa Ana in March, prosecutors will try to prove that Nixon directed his underlings to falsify reports in order to minimize the defects in four windshields manufactured for the Air Force. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The government has confirmed that the windshields are flight-safe. But the Air Force required Swedlow to get its permission before repairing any defects that were more than four inches long or one inch deep, which Swedlow allegedly failed to do.

Law enforcement sources said at the time of the indictment that the investigation was launched after a Swedlow employee called the FBI in Santa Ana and alleged that Nixon was instructing workers to cover up the extent of the defects. The employee was not identified.

Attorneys for Swedlow and Nixon could not be reached Tuesday to comment on Trepl’s lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court. Swedlow is one of the nation’s biggest manufacturers of military aircraft windows.

Trepl, who lives in San Bernardino, said in the suit that after two years working for Swedlow, he was assigned on Sept. 1, 1988, to be project engineer for the B-1 windshield and side-window program.

At a design engineering meeting that morning, Nixon discussed a defect in the delamination--a separation between layers--in the windshields, the suit said. Nixon told those present to “misrepresent” the nature of the defects, Trepl said.

Trepl objected, saying the “defects should be dealt with in an honest manner,” the suit said.

After the meeting, Trepl was relieved of his new assignment and told he no longer had a future with Swedlow, the suit said.

From that point on, Trepl alleged, he was assigned unusually large workloads, denied overtime and received poor performance ratings. On Jan. 5, he received a memo terminating his employment and giving him the chance to resign. He resigned Jan. 10.

Trepl’s suit seeks unspecified damages.