WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIMS $5 MILLION AGAINST NUCLEAR WEAPONS LAB
Anthony T. Rivera, an award-winning senior engineer who blew the whistle on safety violations at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, sued the lab today in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. His suit seeks $5 million in damages – and a court order reforming U.S. Department of Energy practices.
Rivera, a 29-year employee with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, charges Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC is liable for wrongful termination in violation of public policy because managers fired him after he disclosed safety violations in the lab’s high explosives test facility and alleged mismanagement.
His suit also seeks damages against two U.S. Department of Energy officials – Kimberly Davis Lebak, the DOE/NNSA site manager at Livermore in 2013, and Shiwali Patel, a DOE Office of Hearings and Appeals investigator who refused to investigate Rivera’s claims.
The suit says Lebak and Patel punished Rivera for exercising his First Amendment freedom of speech when he complained of unsafe practices and management misdeeds.
Citing the Administrative Procedures Act of 1789, Rivera also asks the court to order DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration and its Office of Hearings and Appeals to reform their operations so as to protect whistleblowers in practice.
Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC manages the principal U.S. nuclear arms lab.
Rivera is represented by Atty. Tony Bothwell of San Francisco.
Comments
More employees should follow this guy's example. He'll be set for life.
The answer to your question may depend upon those evaluating the allegations, DOE/NNSA, or the U.S. District Court.
Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
1/22/2016
"Former Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) employee Anthony Rivera on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking $5 million in damages for alleged wrongful termination. Rivera is suing LLNL ..."
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