Image: UNSPLASH/Mika Baumeister

A New Jersey jury just delivered a message that the Democrat machine in Essex County did not want to hear.

On Friday, an Essex County jury returned a unanimous 8–0 verdict for Theodore “Teddy” DeBlasio, a longtime groundskeeper at Essex County Hospital Center who was fired after the county denied his religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The panel awarded him more than $670,000 for economic and emotional harm. Attorneys’ fees are still to come. Punitive damages are next.

Attorney John D. Coyle of Coyle Law Group called it New Jersey’s first jury verdict in a COVID-19 religious exemption case.

DeBlasio, raised Catholic and now a Christian, objected to taking a shot tested or developed using aborted fetal cell lines. That is a sincerely held religious belief millions of Americans share. Essex County treated it like a punchline.

According to trial evidence cited by Coyle Law Group, in February 2022 the county denied every religious exemption request submitted by Christian and Catholic employees, and approved every request submitted by Muslim employees.

Coyle put it bluntly on X:

“It was revealed at trial that Essex County denied each and every request from a Christian employee and granted every Muslim exemption. That isn’t an exaggeration.”

“Catholic groundskeeper could not safely test and mask but a Muslim NURSE could test and mask.”

“Essex County determined that Teddy DeBlasio—with the crown of thorns tattooed on his wrist to remind him to think of Jesus with his actions—did not have sincere beliefs but a Muslim employee who photocopied another Muslim’s exemption, did.”

Read that again. A man who cuts grass, plants flowers, rakes leaves, and removes snow was declared a “health and safety risk” to patients. An unvaccinated Muslim nurse and a hospital attendant were allowed to keep working directly with patients, as long as they masked and tested.

That is not public health. That is a religious test dressed up as science.

Essex County is run by longtime Democrat County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo Jr., a Phil Murphy ally who spent the pandemic posing at vaccine sites and bragging about shots in arms.

The same county later drew a scathing state comptroller report over sloppy spending on its $40 million vaccination program. When it came to a Christian groundskeeper, suddenly the rules were ironclad.

Coyle’s closing question to the jury was simple: Would Essex County have treated DeBlasio differently if he had been Muslim? Eight jurors, men and women, different races, different faiths, different backgrounds, answered yes.

This is the same pattern The Gateway Pundit has been documenting for years.

In 2024, a federal jury ordered Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee to pay nearly $700,000 to a research scientist fired for refusing the shot on religious grounds.

Later that year, a Michigan jury hit Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan with a record $12 million award for a Catholic IT specialist fired after more than 30 years on the job.

In 2025, St. Louis public school employees who were denied religious exemptions won $4 million.

The NorthShore University HealthSystem settlement in Illinois paid more than $10 million to health-care workers denied exemptions because of their beliefs about aborted fetal cell lines. The pattern is the same everywhere the mandate cult ran the show: Christians get the door. Favored groups get a pass.

Coyle and co-counsel Lili J. Caparosa spent four and a half years fighting a defense firm with offices in nine states and hundreds of lawyers. David versus Goliath. The little firm won.

Coyle wrote after the verdict:

“We can’t undo the godless evil oppression we endured through the ‘pandemic’ but today was a very important step forward. A jury of 5 women and 3 men, all races, religions, and political beliefs, came together as one.”

The county offered shifting, contradictory excuses the entire time. First it was safety. Then it was sincerity. Then it was whatever story they needed that week. A jury of DeBlasio’s peers did not buy it.

This was never about a groundskeeper spreading a virus while raking leaves. It was about power. Democrat-run Essex County decided which religions counted and which ones did not. A New Jersey jury just told them they do not get to play God.

The Covid tyrants are losing in court. Keep the scoreboard running.

The post Another Incredible Win Against the Covid Tyrants: New Jersey Jury Delivers Unanimous 8–0 Verdict for Christian Groundskeeper Fired Over a Religious Exemption — Awarded $671,000 appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.