VA quietly drops criminal investigation of whistleblower after year of intimidation

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Watchdog:

A social worker at a Louisiana Veterans Affairs hospital is no longer under criminal investigation by his employer for accessing a secret list that he used as proof to show that 2,700 vets languished -- including 37 who died -- awaiting care.

 

It's been a year since Shea Wilkes, a decorated Army Reservist, went to the media with evidence that the Overton Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport kept an off-the-books appointment list. The nationwide scandal over wait-times cost the VA secretary his job -- and nearly cost Wilkes his position. He was demoted and harassed, and saw any future advancement evaporate while the VA Inspector General treated him as a suspect rather than a whistleblower.

 

On June 24, Wilkes' attorney received a phone call: The Inspector General agents had dropped their probe.

 

"What they would've been investigating him for was accessing a list that wasn't supposed to exist," attorney Richard John said. "They had no intention of ever prosecuting him. They did it solely for purpose of intimidation. It has a chilling effect on other people coming forward as witnesses."

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Dropping the case, but still dropping the ball.