Source:
The Detroit NewsIraq veteran files discrimination suit against U.S. Army
George Hunter and Mike Martindale / The Detroit News
SOUTHFIELD -- A wounded Iraq War veteran filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday, alleging the U.S. Army discriminated against him while he worked at a civilian job at the Tank Automotive Command in Warren.
Former U.S. Army Sgt. James McKelvey was forced out of his job in part because he used a handicapped parking space in front of the Tank Automotive Command (TACOM) building in Warren and because his employers would not otherwise accommodate his handicap, his attorneys said. TACOM officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
"Today we filed against the U.S. Army in a civil lawsuit alleging they systematically harassed a disabled Iraqi War veteran," said attorney Geoffrey Fieger, a co-counsel in the lawsuit, during a Wednesday press conference. "He was called a cripple by co-workers and after he made complaints was assigned into a cubicle, essentially put in isolation from other workers."
Fieger said when McKelvey sought to correct "intolerable" conditions, he was rebuffed and eventually left his job. Fieger said efforts to resolve the situation for more than six months were unsuccessful prompting the lawsuit against Pete Geren, Secretary of the United States Army. "We feel this is only one of several cases out there in which decorated heroes have been treated poorly," said Fieger.
McKelvey lost his right hand and suffered a mangled left hand and burns on his body while trying to disarm a homemade bomb near Baghdad in February 2004. He was flown to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., where President George W. Bush personally awarded him with the Purple Heart, another of his attorneys, Joseph Golden, said.
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