Trial date set for former researcher James Enstrom’s lawsuit
By amanda schallert
Jan. 14, 2014 12:22 a.m.
A Riverside federal judge set a trial date for a former UCLA researcher’s lawsuit against the University of California Board of Regents in a Monday hearing.
The case is set to go to trial on Nov. 18 of this year.
James Enstrom, a former faculty researcher in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, filed a federal lawsuit against the University of California and some UCLA administrators in June 2012, claiming he was unlawfully dismissed from his position at UCLA.
In the lawsuit, Enstrom also alleged that UCLA administrators discriminated against him for his controversial research and speech about the effects of certain air contaminants and had political motivations for laying him off.
After the hearing in Riverside, Enstrom’s attorney David French said he expects the trial to be over by the end of this year, but the case may continue in appeals after the trial is over.
In Enstrom’s layoff notice, he was told he was let go from his position at UCLA because his research did not align with the mission of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA.
The attorneys defending the regents could not be reached for comment. UCLA officials have previously denied the claims laid out in Enstrom’s lawsuit.
The trial is set to take place in a United States District Court in Riverside.
Compiled by Amanda Schallert, Bruin senior staff.
