CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Burn Pits 360 Founder and U.S. Army veteran Le Roy Torres got the best early birthday present he could have imagined Friday when he was awarded $2.49 million in his case against the State of Texas.
The jury sided unanimously with Torres, 6-0.
"Today's definitely a great day," he said after 3NEWS caught up with him at a celebratory dinner. "Today, finally, after 13 years, that time came where justice was served."
The U.S. Army veteran and Robstown resident has been fighting for the right to sue the state for not honoring its obligation to make work accommodations for him after he returned from war in 2012 with lung issues and, later a brain injury, sustained while being exposed to toxic burn pits in Iraq.
"You know, we have veterans who come back from deployment from conflicts, and come back with (the) expectation that they have their jobs," he said. "And we're accepted, but sometimes those issues don't surface until later, like mine did. My medical issues didn't arise 'til later after I was already back at work."
Torres was a Department of Public Safety trooper and a U.S. Army reservist when he was called up and deployed to Iraq.
While there, he was exposed to burn pits later discovered to be toxic. After returning to duty as a trooper, he began to show symptoms that would eventually be linked to the burn pits.
As was his right under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, he asked DPS to make workplace accommodations for him to be able to continue doing his job, since his injuries had been sustained while at war.
His attorney Brian J. Lawler said that "periodic, temporary accommodations" were made in January 2011 when Torres developed constrictive bronchitis, but when he requested permanent accommodations later that year, nothing was done despite a superior approving the request.
"After that date, no one from DPS contacted Le Roy to tell him what was going on and there was no evidence at all (literally none) that DPS looked for another position for him to fill, despite their lawful, affirmative duty to do so," Lawler wrote in an email while traveling back to California on Friday.
The retired Army captain eventually sued the state for the accommodations he was due, but the state claimed sovereign immunity -- it essentially told him the state could not be sued.
The 23-year veteran took his case to the Texas Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case. It was only after the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case in 2022 that Torres was allowed to see his day in court this week.
"It's been a tremendous, long week," he said. "Been a long 13 years waiting for justice."
Torres said he was awarded lost wages for the last 13 years, with retirement benefits. If he had been allowed to continue working for the state, he would have been eligible for retirement on his birthday: Sept. 30.
Now that his personal fight is over, he said he plans to take some time to relish the win.
"After these 13 years, not a day had gone buy that I hadn't been thinking about this case and now I actually take some time to rest," he said. "But our work continues."
He also said he hopes others look to his case as inspiration if they face similar circumstances.
"If there's any veterans that are discouraged because of any issues they face on the job, now there's remedies for us here -- not only here in Texas -- but perhaps in other states, to continue our jobs when we come back from war," he said.