Whistle-Blower’s Civil Suit Against Northrop Dismissed

A whistle-blower suit alleging that Northrop had supplied defective guidance systems for the Air Force’s nuclear-armed cruise missiles has been dismissed by U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon in Los Angeles.

The civil suit was brought by Leocadio Barajas, a former employee in Northrop’s western services department in Pomona. Its dismissal in December had not been previously reported.

In a previous case that the firm agreed to settle for $8 million, Barajas and another former employee accused Northrop of falsifying tests on the cruise missile. But in the dismissed case, the employees said Northrop also supplied gyroscopes containing a damping fluid that would freeze at operating temperatures below contract requirements--the controversial allegations known as the “cold temperature” issue.

Herbert Hafif, the attorney representing Barajas, asked Kenyon on Thursday to reverse his ruling, asserting that former Assistant U.S. Atty. William Fahey had committed a “fraud on the court” by filing a declaration that misrepresented facts in the case.

Fahey, who is now running for Congress in the South Bay, said: “Once again, Herbert Hafif has decided to make statements without knowledge of the true facts of the investigation.” Fahey said he stands by his declaration, asserting that Hafif had confused the damping fluid problem with an unrelated problem involving the gyroscope’s ball bearings.