[Updated at 3:06 p.m. A federal judge ruled Thursday that the United States Department of Veteran Affairs misused portions of its 387-acre West Los Angeles Campus in leasing land to parties completely separate from the cause of veteran healthcare and rehabilitation.
U.S. District Judge S. James Otero, of the Central District of California, struck down nine West Los Angeles Veterans campus leases, including the lease for UCLA baseball’s Jackie Robinson Stadium, which has been on the VA’s property for almost 50 years. The court has delayed enforcement action on the leased properties for six months in order to accommodate a U.S. government appeal.
During that time, if no settlement can be reached between the Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans involved in the suit or independently between UCLA and involved veterans, UCLA may be forced to vacate the stadium, according to a statement released Friday by UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero.
In the statement, Guerrero called the ruling “especially disappointing.”
“On a campus-wide level, UCLA serves veterans through Operation Mend, providing reconstructive surgery to U.S. military personnel injured and disfigured in Iraq and Afghanistan, and through the Nathanson Family Resilience Center, providing an array of programs for military families facing the challenges of deployment and reintegration,” Guerrero said in the statement.
Guerrero also mentioned Jackie Robinson Stadium’s employment of “hundreds of veterans” over the years, its free admission offer to veterans for non-playoff home games and the stadium’s hosting of baseball games for youth teams organized by the American Legion, chartered in 1919 as a “patriotic veterans organization devoted to mutual helpfulness.”
The recent ruling stems from the lawsuit Valentini v. Shinseki, organized by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, in which the Department of Veteran Affairs’ leasing of federal property to outside groups, both public and private, was called into legal question.
The status of the U.S. government’s appeal is yet to be determined, but Guerrero said UCLA intends to “press our case to both sides” of the suit in an effort to convey UCLA’s support of the veteran community and continue its partnership with the West Los Angeles VA in the future.
While Guerrero said UCLA remains “optimistic” regarding the baseball team’s ability to play baseball at Jackie Robinson Stadium in 2014, he indicated that the school is in the process of identifying other possible locations to house the team in the event that the federal court forces UCLA to vacate the stadium.]
Compiled by Andrew Erickson, Bruin Sports senior staff.