CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — U.S. Army veteran and founder of Burn Pits 360, Le Roy Torres, had his first court hearing Monday at the Nueces County Courthouse in his case against the state of Texas.
The hearing comes after more than a decade of Torres fighting for the right to sue the state after he claims the Department of Public Safety refused to make job accommodations for him after he developed constrictive bronchitis, a chronic condition, as a result of being exposed to toxic burn pits during the Iraq War in 2007.
The Robstown veteran says he was injured by daily exposure to toxic fumes from a burn pit during his time in Iraq.
After the war, Torres returned to his job as a Texas State Trooper in 2008 and said that was when his symptoms started to show. He claims he was pressured to resign from DPS.
The lawsuit, initially filed six years ago, claims Torres was then forced out of his job as a state trooper because of a lung injury he received while serving in Iraq. It asked for lost wages and retirement pay, but the Texas Supreme Court declined to hear his case.
That is when Torres took his case to the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled in his favor in June of last year. Torres will now have to argue the merits of the case.
This is a developing story. Check back with 3NEWS for updates.
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