Teacher Must Pay for Suit on Evolution : Courts: Litigation against Capistrano Unified to cost Peloza $32,603. Appeal filed.

A federal judge in Los Angeles Tuesday ordered high school teacher John Peloza to pay more than $30,000 in courts costs and expenses incurred by the Capistrano Unified School District during a lengthy legal battle over Peloza’s objections to teaching evolution.

Peloza, a born-again Christian who teaches at Capistrano Valley High School, had claimed in a federal lawsuit that the district violated his First Amendment rights by forcing him to teach what he called “the religion” of evolution in his biology classes.

U.S. District Judge David W. Williams, who dismissed Peloza’s lawsuit in January calling it “frivolous and unreasonable,” ordered the teacher to reimburse the district $30,884 in attorney fees and $1,719 in incidental expenses, such as copier costs and for computer research.

Williams, who agreed with the district’s position that Peloza improperly violated state-mandated science curricula by teaching creationist theory, said in his 10-page written decision that the amount of the requested fees was “moderate and reasonable.”

“While granting fees may have a chilling effect on civil rights claims of this matter, not granting fees may give the appearance of court tolerance of those claims which have not been thoroughly researched, and where established case law has already determined the matters before the court,” Williams wrote.

Peloza said he plans to appeal Williams’ ruling on the court costs. Peloza’s attorney, Cyrus Zal, has already filed an appeal on the judge’s January ruling with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“This is not unexpected,” Peloza said of Tuesday’s ruling. “This demonstrates that justice is an insignificant concept in today’s legal system.”

Peloza said that he does not know how he will pay the fees if his appeal is unsuccessful but that he has “no regrets” over starting the well-publicized legal battle.

“If I had to do over again, I’d do the same thing,” Peloza said. “What I’m doing is right. I’ve never been in this for my own benefit; it’s always been in the interests of the children. If I’m going to be financially responsible for doing the right thing, so be it.”

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Peloza’s attorney, Zal, said of the ruling. “The judge really hasn’t looked at the facts of the case at all. It looks like he had his mind made up, no matter what we said or did.”

Capistrano Unified School District Supt. James A. Fleming, who said Peloza used the court system for his “own aggrandizement and amusement,” praised the judge’s decision Tuesday afternoon.

“The right for anyone to file a lawsuit is clearly being abused,” Fleming said. “I think this will send a message that if you’re going to abuse the courts, you’re going to have to pay the cost for doing it.”

Fleming said the reimbursement in legal fees will mean more money for district programs. The district faces an estimated $8.9-million budget shortfall next year and sent out more than 200 preliminary layoff notices to teachers last month.

“These are already difficult enough financial times for this district without having to pay attorneys to defend against a lawsuit that is clearly frivolous,” Fleming said. “

Peloza said his plans to continue the legal battle are helped by the “tremendous support” he has received from people.

Earlier this month, supporters of the teacher inundated the judge with telephone calls and letters after a religious radio program urged listeners to contact Williams to “put in their vote” for Peloza.

Then last week, dozens of supporters demonstrated outside the federal courthouse when attorneys for both sides presented oral arguments to the judge regarding the legal fees and expenses.

Two weeks after Peloza lost his bid to sue the school district, he was reassigned from teaching biology classes at Capistrano Valley High to teaching physical education classes.

“If they fired me tomorrow, I wouldn’t change,” Peloza said. “I won’t tell my students fairy tales and call it science.