Jury clears 20th TV in Dunbar vaccine exemption case

An L.A. jury on Friday unanimously ruled that Disney-owned 20th Television did not unlawfully fire actor Rockmond Dunbar from the television series 911 for refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds, returning the verdict after a nearly three-day federal trial in downtown Los Angeles. Dunbar had sued in 2022, saying producers removed his character in late 2021 after he sought medical and religious exemptions to the studio's vaccine requirement for on-set personnel.

Jurors were asked to decide whether Dunbar held a sincerely held religious belief under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, whether the studio failed to engage in the required interactive process, and whether any reasonable accommodations could have been made without undue hardship. Dunbar told the court he is a member of the Congregation of Universal Wisdom, a church founded by Walter Schilling in 1975 whose teachings prohibit injections and certain medications. He testified that his faith, which he described as combining elements of CUW teachings with Buddhism and African Yoruba traditions, barred him from taking the COVID-19 vaccine.

20th Television contested the sincerity of Dunbar's religious...