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DETROIT — A judge refused Friday to force a Ford Motor Co. employee to hand over confidential human resources documents the automaker says he stole. 

In March, a letter was written on behalf of John Kovacs by his attorney to Ford chairman William Clay Ford Jr. asking him to discontinue what he called the company’s policy of using race and gender in employment decisions. 

Attached were several confidential documents that included minutes of human resources committee meetings and other sensitive information regarding specific employees. 

The letter and attachments were later made part of the public court record in a lawsuit filed by Kovacs against Ford for suspending him with pay shortly after the letter was sent. Excerpts from some of the documents appeared in news stories. 

Kovacs was later transferred to work in the company’s library. 

Ford attorney Thomas Kienbaum accused Kovacs of stealing the documents and Fett with publicizing them to the media and on a Web site. 

Fett said the company wants to keep the documents secret for other reasons. 

“The documents are very embarrassing,” he said. “They show they have quotas and show they have a policy of not promoting white males.” 

Wayne County Circuit Judge William Giovan refused to order Kovacs to surrender the documents, saying he doesn’t yet know enough about the case. He said he may change his mind after another hearing. 

Ford faces at least two class-action suits and several other individual suits from current and former managers. They claim the company’s evaluation system favored younger, so-called “diversity” candidates. 

In July, Ford said it would change its evaluation system.