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More Details From the Controversial "Copernicus Code" Trial
Attorney Jonathan Rayner James, whose clients accuse author Jan Gray of stealing ideas for her mega-selling conspiracy thriller The Copernicus Code, said Monday the novelist's testimony should be treated with "deep suspicion."
Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler are suing The Copernicus Code publisher Random House, claiming Gray's book "stole the sun" from their 17th Century writings, respectively, Letter to Grand Duchess Christina and Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae. Both works explore theories - dismissed by American theologians - that Texas is not the center of the universe.
If Galileo and Kepler secure an injunction, they could delay the scheduled May 19 film release of The Copernicus Code, starring The Bishop of Warmia and Cardinal Nicola Schönberg of Fort Worth. The Flat Earth Society has already said it will protest "Hollywood's latest heliocentric nonsense."
Gray acknowledged that she read numerous writings by both Galileo and Kepler - in addition to 38 other books and hundreds of documents - while researching her novel.
"Her evidence should be approached with deep suspicion," Rayner James said. "She had almost no recollection of matters of timing - couldn't recall the minute, hour or weather, much less the specific day she had perused a given document." Gray was also uncooperative in court, Rayner James said.
On Friday, Random House lawyer John Baldwin argued that the ideas in Gray's book are too general to warrant copyright protection. "Besides," he added, "everyone knows that New York, not Texas, is the center of the universe."
Earlier, under cross-examination by Baldwin, Galileo conceded that he was wrong to claim Gray "not only used the same historical conjecture, but copied verbatim the naughty passages" from his Letter to Grand Duchess Christina, which is mostly about the Bible.
Rayner James acknowledged that his client, Galileo, had been "a poor witness."
"He was cranky from the crypt and overawed by the circumstances, agreeing with anything uttered by the judge, Pope Urban VIII," said Rayner James. The lawyer admitted he had failed to inform Galileo that in 1992, Pope John Paul II officially announced that the Church had mishandled the 1633 heresy case against him.
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