Veteran exposed to toxic burn pits wins precedent-setting lawsuit

Geoff Bennett:

A jury has ruled in favor of an Army veteran who has sued Texas over workplace accommodations.

As William Brangham reports, the verdict is a victory for veterans who have long pushed to raise awareness over their exposure to toxic chemicals.

William Brangham:

Texas State Trooper Le Roy Torres was also an Army Reservist when he was called to active duty in 2007 and deployed to Iraq.

While there, Torres says he was constantly exposed to the smoke from what are called burn pits, where the Army burns its trash in open fires. Following that exposure, he was diagnosed with a severe lung disease, and, once back home in Texas, had to live with a steady supply of concentrated oxygen.

Le Roy Torres, Co-Founder, Burn Pits 360: It's a mental battle. But, here lately, it's been the best thing that I can do to help me.

William Brangham:

Torres asked for an accommodation at his old job to take a different position within the Texas Department of Public Safety, but Torres says they told him to resign instead.

So he tried to sue the state. But Texas argued it couldn't be sued because of what's known as sovereign immunity. Torres challenged that position all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he prevailed, granting him permission to sue Texas.

And Torres' suit, which just finished last week, was decided in his favor. The jury awarded him a financial settlement to cover lost wages, benefits, and retirement.

For more on this landmark case, we turn to Le Roy's wife, Rosie Torres. Together, they created the organization Burn Pits 360, which advocates on behalf of veterans exposed to toxic environments.

Rosie Torres, so good to have you on the program again.

I wonder. This remarkable legal victory that you have just achieved, how is that sitting with the two of you on this side of that victory?

Rosie Torres, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Burn Pits 360: It just — it feels surreal. It's been such a long journey of heartache and injustice, that it's still making its way to settle in our minds and primarily in our hearts, because we have just have suffered, along with so many other families, the injustice of life after war and just all the battles that we have faced.

William Brangham:

When you and your husband spoke with my colleagues a year ago in Texas, you both shared some very difficult times that your husband had been through emotionally.

And I wonder, just how is he doing now? How's he feeling? How's everything with him?

Rosie Torres:

Well, it is very emotional.

I mean, I know we shared very publicly about the night that he had a suicide attempt. To me, as his wife, what I saw was a man who served his nation and his state honorably, and he was stripped of his integrity and his dignity and his childhood dream from the state.

So, to see him now with this sense of peace and the mending of his heart is just — it's heart-wrenching, but it's so — I'm so grateful to God for what he has given Le Roy. And, as his wife, as his friend, as his advocate, I'm so honored to be standing by him.

William Brangham:

That's fantastic to hear.

I know that he — originally, the whole genesis of this case was his desire to get a different job with the force back in Texas. I understand that was not part of the legal settlement of this most recent resolution. Is there anything else you still want from the force, though?

Rosie Torres:

I have to say that most police officers who serve in a capacity of law enforcement that, usually, when they retire, they're able to sit in their patrol car one last time and properly sign off.

And I would love to see them honor Le Roy in this way, where they would allow him to sit in his patrol car one last time. He went to war and served his nation, and that's all he did. And so, if they would just give him that, it would be amazing, because it would be closure.

William Brangham:

And do you have any sense as to whether that might happen or not?

Rosie Torres:

I don't. I have no idea.

I mean, it's the right thing to do, but has — have they done the right thing all along? No. I mean, it's what he deserved. He went to serve his nation, and he came back to this. So, it should have never happened.

William Brangham:

Regarding this other ongoing struggle you have with the Department of Veterans Affairs, passage of what was called the PACT Act was supposed to clear the way and really smooth a lot of veterans getting disability benefits through the VA.

And I understand that there is still an issue with the VA recognizing the very particular illness that Le Roy has, constrictive bronchiolitis. Can you tell us what the issue is with that? Where does that stand?

Rosie Torres:

So the issue with constrictive bronchiolitis is that the VA hasn't established a code to properly compensate veterans on that disease.

There isn't a process in place to also properly screen the function of the lung. And so that results in veterans like Le Roy being not only sometimes misdiagnosed, but not compensated properly for the damage that's been done to their lungs.

William Brangham:

So, it seems like you have this one tremendous legal victory, and yet the ongoing struggle just does not seem to end.

Rosie Torres:

Yes, correct.

Two decades ago, Dr. Miller presented and advocates presented the issue of constrictive bronchiolitis, which is — I have to say, over 90 percent of people self-report that they're suffering from the issue of not being able to breathe. And so the fact that we're still one year post-PACT Act and still having these conversations with leadership is a huge issue.

People are still dying and they're still sick. So it's unfortunate.

William Brangham:

All right, Rosie Torres, wife of Le Roy Torres and co-founder of Burn Pits 360, thank you so much for being here.

Rosie Torres:

Thank you.