Judge hammers US Department of Veterans Affairs in ruling
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs campus in West Lost Angeles came under hot water as a result of a lawsuit filed by homeless veterans. The VA illegally leased a portion of their West L.A. campus to a baseball team, an oil company, and other groups who did not qualify for the leases. The judge also criticized that the West L.A. VA as corrupt, as bribery infected, and as falling under the influence of powerful lobbyists.
From NBC Lost Angeles:
In a hard-hitting, sometimes-shocking ruling that blasts the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for “turning its back” on the disabled veterans it was designed to help, a federal judge today ordered additional permanent housing on the agency’s West Los Angeles campus.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter also determined that the department has been illegally leasing portions of the campus to a private school, UCLA’s baseball team, an oil company, and other private interests — and ordered those contracts terminated.
In the 125-page ruling, Carter wrote that the “cost of the VA’s inaction is veterans’ lives.”
The judge’s findings were issued Friday following a month-long trial of a lawsuit lodged in Los Angeles federal court against the VA by a group of unhoused veterans with disabilities, challenging land lease agreements and seeking housing on the campus for veterans in need, many of whom are homeless or must travel for hours to see their doctors.
Over the past five decades, Carter wrote, the VA in West L.A. “has been infected by bribery, corruption, and the influence of the powerful and their lobbyists, and enabled by a major educational institution in excluding veterans’ input about their own lands.”
Carter, himself a Vietnam War veteran, found that the VA “has allowed the drastic reduction of the size of the original plot of land deeded in 1888 to be an Old Soldiers’ Home. In a series of lengthy, renewable leases, the VA authorized leaseholders to build permanent athletic facilities — after permitting these concrete structures to be built on veterans’ land.”
The judge held that for years the VA — budgeted at $407 billion annually — has “quietly sold off” land badly needed for injured and homeless military veterans.
Additional Reading:
City News Service. (2024, September 7). Judge blasts VA, orders more housing for veterans on West LA campus. NBC Lost Angeles. Link.
Category: Veterans in the news, Veterans Issues, Veterans' Affairs Department
Amazing to find that California Officials are taking advantage of a poorly managed federal institution with large “tracks of land”!!? <sarc>
It is unconscionable!
Ahhh good ole’ California — my favorite failed, shithole state.
After 5 years of college took a high paying job in Pomona.
After 9 months of that shithole I walked off the job and had my
GF and my dog waiting at the gate with all our belonings in the
U-haul trailer.
Shoulda left the GF there but that’s another story……..
But the dog was cool, right?
No, the cat was cool, never said a mumblin’ word.
Yep, died of old age after a long happy life.
Miss him. The GF…..eh, not so much.
Priorities.
The GF’s Mother taught her well, huh?
So, which unelected, unaccountable beaurocrat/ beaurocrats are getting their pockets lined? No government oversight anywhere, so it certainly seems somebody in the government (local, state, federal) is getting a piece of the pie as well.
Where do we sign up for some of this?
It’s the PDRK (peepuls demokratik repugnant of kaliphornya) so this is a pretty apt description of the dems there and the current state and federal administrations.
“West L.A. VA as corrupt, as bribery infected, and as falling under the influence of powerful lobbyists.”
BZ to Da Judge for the ruling! Now…when are we going to see some of the perps of the “…decades of bribery, corruption, and influence…” go to prison and make restitution for their nefarious activities? Not gonna hold my breath!
“budgeted at $407 billion annually”
Chump change. Guess who the chump is.
Bribery, corruption, influence pedaling at the VA???? Putting personal gain ahead of soldier’s lives???
I mean I wasn’t surprised but I told my pet Koala about it and then this happened. She wasn’t able to eat for 20 minutes. I thought she was going to go into a blood sugar coma.
Koalas are easily shocked, unlike Captain Renault 😉 :
Judge David Carter is something of a legend in the Federal Judiciary. Even though he is on the 9th he is pretty much a centrist moderate and known for fair judgement and decisions that often, although not always, make both parties happy. If he believes a party was doing wrong he tends to punish them heavily. Most everyone has heard of a few cases that he has presided over.
He did serve in Vietnam as a Marine and fought at the Battle of Khe Sahn, where he was awarded the BSM and PHM. He then received a medical discharge due to his wounds. I’ll be surprised if we don’t see some heavy handed court orders directed at this dumpster fire of a VA office.
How about some heavy handed public perp walks. Name names please. Publish pics of
their mug shots too. And seize their bank accounts until its all sorted out. Their spouses had to know they were living well off the salaries earned.
It’s already been done. I’m pretty sure there was an article about it posted around here a few years back.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/parking-lot-operator-sentenced-nearly-6-years-federal-prison-bribery-scheme-defrauded
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/former-veterans-affairs-official-agrees-plead-guilty-federal-charges-after-taking
Thanks for the links.
My first surprise of the day. Corruption in a California-based federal agency. I never woulda thunk it.
A left/libtard “who you know” sh*thole… I’d never would have either. /sarc equally
Here’s a link to the ruling if anyone is interested: Dkt. 302 Post-Trial Opinion; Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.pdf (uscourts.gov)
Yep, he has them by the balls. 750 housing units in six months and a plan for 1800 more. Priority to those with mental illness. Third party monitoring and all kinds of stuff.
Well done.
Wow.