Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Deception and Discrimination Continue at UAB

The trail of deceit and discrimination at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) seems to get longer by the day.

About three weeks ago, a federal jury in Birmingham found that UAB discriminated against a former medical resident from India, based on her Hindu religion. That is one of several cases involving alleged discrimination against international medical residents. And those could raise issues about federal funding at UAB, which generally is predicated on a commitment to nondiscriminatory practices. Much more on that in future posts.

Today, we learn that two UAB researchers have been barred from receiving federal funds after investigations revealed they had falsified animal-study results. Dr. Juan R. Contreras and Dr. Judith M. Thomas have been barred from receiving federal funds, and they no longer are employed at UAB.

This will not come as a surprise to Legal Schnauzer readers. We have written numerous posts about the culture of deceit that has come to permeate UAB and the University of Alabama Board of Trustees in recent years.

All of this hits close to home for us because I worked at UAB for 19 years before being unlawfully terminated in May 2008, and evidence strongly suggests it was largely because of the content of my blog, which has been critical of the Bush Justice Department and its handling of apparent political prosecutions--such as the case of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.

Age and gender discrimination, conspiracy, retaliation, wrongful termination, and defamation also appear to be present in my case, which currently is under investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). I intend to file a lawsuit against UAB (the University of Alabama Board of Trustees is the legal entity), along with a number of folks acting in their individual capacities, once that investigation is completed.

Wrongdoing at UAB goes way beyond anything that personally involves your humble blogger. Here's a sampler of sleaze from Birmingham's Southside:

* The UAB Health System cut 245 jobs, which came on the heels of reports that UAB had cheated the federal government out of approximately $600 million in a research scam that lasted at least 10 years;

* UAB apparently issued a false public statement after the departure of Health System CEO David Hoidal;

* UAB is beset with human-resources problems, including allegations that it tried to fudge numbers on a research study of female faculty members;

* Two UAB staff members, Dr. Thomas Spurlock and Dr. Francois Michel Blaudeau, are partners with Homewood attorney Rob Riley (son of Governor Bob Riley) in a company called Performance Group LLC. The company is the subject of allegations in federal court that it practices health-care fraud.

* A member of the UA Board of Trustees owns a company that was implicated in a massive insurance-fraud case in Pennsylvania.

We have only scratched the surface when it comes to sleaze at UAB, and we have many more posts in the works.

As for the recent discrimination case that went to trial, I had a front-row seat for that. The whole spectacle says a lot about the depths to which UAB has sunk, both in and outside the courtroom. It also raises serious questions about the integrity of our justice system. We will be reporting on all of that soon.

I'm hardly alone in being victimized by UAB. You soon will be meeting a number of other folks who have suffered the same fate.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chip Hazerlrig -
Do you know anything about his involvement in Enterra Energy Trust in Canada. He made a ton of money from it. He was a director of the company and managed to sell out just in time? The whole thing was really suspicious. Should have been investigated by the SEC, or Canada's version of it.

legalschnauzer said...

I knew Hazelrig was involved with Enterra, but that's about the extent of my knowledge. I know that the estate of Sloan Bashinsky has filed a lawsuit against one of Hazelrig's companies, and it has to do with investments in oil wells. I believe that lawsuit is ongoing.

Feel free to keep me posted if you find out more.

Anonymous said...

Legal Schnauzer this is incredible work. Wow, what perseverance and endurance you have had. No matter how many ugly words have been thrown to break your bones, and then the depth of hurt to use Murphy as a knife to cut you with, and worse thoughts than we want to believe our fellow humans can think about. You have continued in your integrity as an investigative journalist of the highest order. See how it is sometimes, we just do not know why the path leads where it does - but, you prove America is still great and then some. Thank you so much. I'll check in later with my own case/s the one against Police Abuse and but of course, Goldman Sachs aka Federal Reserve System. Again, wow and thanks for cleaning up the corruption one play at a time! Bravo Shakespeare Bravo! Biloxi

Anonymous said...

Wow! I am a recent employee at UAB and really like it. But I always had a feeling about corruption 'behind the scenes'. Is there any evidence of bribery for awarding of contracts by the University?

By the way, I really believe that UAB is a great place. But like any other institution it has problems. Look at all of the recent corporate scandals that led to the financial crisis, which make all of this look like child's play. I also think that the University is seriuos about fixing these problems.

Anonymous said...

This is the worst form of journalism possible. You should be ashamed of yourself Legalschnauzer. I bet your professors are really proud of your body of work. We see better journalism in the trash rags at the supermarket stands. At least they make no bones about the fact that they are trash and full of innuendo and half truths. You on the other hand vomit untruths hoping to weave a web of lies and deception in the name of so-called truth and justice. You patch together half facts with names and links and spout conclusions that neither you nor the white hot light of the truth supports.

Yes, we have many tribulations but you are part of the problem and not part of the solution. Those of us who know you from UAB know this is the work of a vindictive little man. The truth is you were fired from UAB for not doing your job well. Furthermore, any true journalist would not only post his name and identity on his work; but, he would not start out to slander and smear others at the cost of the truth. The fact is that your body of work still stinks at the end of the day. That makes you a very little man on a witch-hunt. You like to position yourself as an ombudsman or independent third party. Again you lie to your reader as you were involved up to you eyeballs.

Maybe I got it all wrong. Oh, I should have realized that such a scholarly trained journalist as yourself, classically trained at U of Missouri, is writing fiction and make believe in hopes to someday get a job. So, Get a Job and leave the writing to professional journalist.
Dr Vincent Vore

legalschnauzer said...

Anon:

I would be happy to reply to your comment, but I'm confused. You are listed as "Anonymous," but your comment is signed "Dr. Vincent Vore."

Which is it? Who are we communicating with here?