Just who is True_Gold Background
For eighteen years, Ms. Cook worked for COP, a not-for-profit corporation organized to manage property and assets of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church) for the benefit of its religion, charitable works, and public worship. COP requires each employee to maintain a temple recommend, which is an LDS leader's written certification evidencing the individual's qualification for temple worthiness. A temple recommend is based on a number of factors, specifically including whether the individual is a faithful adherent to the teachings of the Church, and does not support or sympathize with apostate groups or individuals whose beliefs or teachings are contrary to the Church. The lack of a temple recommend can lead to employee discipline, ranging from probation to termination of employment.
Ms. Cook worked as a graphic designer for COP's religious publications for eighteen years. In late 2001, church security officers received information that Steven C. Davis knew of a bombing threat to church temples. Mr. Davis had been expelled from the LDS Church and was viewed by the church as an excommunicant and apostate. The informant also told the security [*4] officers that Davis had used the church's in-house mail system to distribute materials and that Ms. Cook may have given Davis access to that system. Accordingly, in November 2001 the security officers interviewed Ms. Cook.
The officers felt that statements by Ms. Cook during the interview suggested that she both supported Mr. Davis and held what they viewed to be "strange and unorthodox religious beliefs" that were inconsistent with LDS Church teachings. (Order at 4) The officers reported their impressions to the COP human resources department, which in turn consulted with Ms. Cook's ecclesiastical leaders. These leaders advised COP that Ms. Cook had a current temple recommend, but that they were concerned about her nonconforming beliefs and affiliation with Mr. Davis.
Approximately one month after the security interview, Ms. Cook reaffirmed her belief in the teachings of the LDS Church to individuals in the COP human resources department. She also agreed to discontinue her association with Mr. Davis. COP undertook no disciplinary action at the time. But in February 2002, COP suspended Ms. Cook with pay, pending completion of another temple- worthiness check, based on information [*5] that Mr. Davis and his wife were living in Ms. Cook's residence. COP later permitted her to return to work on probationary status, conditioned on her agreement to refrain from communicating with Mr. Davis (except to the extent necessary as his landlord) or advancing his views.
In August 2002 Ms. Cook filed with the EEOC a charge of discrimination, alleging age, gender, and religious discrimination. She then filed this pro se federal action in December 2002. Litigation did not proceed smoothly. Ms. Cook filed numerous motions, accompanied by voluminous, but largely irrelevant, exhibits. Ms. Cook also sought a writ of mandamus seeking recusal of the magistrate judge. Defendants countered with motions of their own, including a summary judgment motion.
From Ms. Cook's case filings and from proceedings in a separate lawsuit brought by Mr. Davis against COP, COP decided that Ms. Cook was using her litigation to advance Mr. Davis's agenda against the LDS Church and the individual defendants. In May 2003, COP terminated Ms. Cook's employment, stating, among other things, that she was discharged for "engaging in a series of actions demonstrating a lack of fidelity to [her] employer and [*6] to the President of the Church" and for "using the processes of the courts to make allegations and demand discovery from COP on behalf of a third person, Mr. Steve Davis, having nothing to do with [her] own employment relationship or claim." R., Vol. V, doc. 92, ex. L.
Ms. Cook then attempted to amend her complaint to add a retaliation claim.The district court dismissed the individual defendants since they were not employers under Title VII or the ADEA and granted summary judgment in favor of COP. The court denied Ms. Cook's motion to amend and also her subsequent motions under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b) for relief from judgment based on newly discovered evidence and fraud on the court. This appeal followed.
In this court Ms. Cook provides a great deal of extraneous argument concerning LDS Church leaders' alleged collusion to cast her and Mr. Davis in a bad light. Although Ms. Cook does not clearly state her appellate issues, she appears to claim error in the (1) grant of summary judgment on her age, gender, and religious discrimination claims, (2) denial of her motion to amend the complaint, and (3) denial of her motions for relief from judgment. [*7] She also asserts unfair bias in the part of the district court and the magistrate judge. n2