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Vet sues Army, claims job loss stemmed from parking space

A former Michigan soldier who was seriously injured while trying to disarm a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004 sued the Army on Wednesday, saying he was forced out of his job at the Warren tank arsenal because his bosses didn’t want him to park in a handicapped space.

James McKelvey, 36, of Sterling Heights, said in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit that bosses and a co-worker derided him as a cripple, refused to provide him with equipment to accommodate his disabilities and excluded him from meetings, eventually forcing him to quit in March. His lawyer said he had a state-issued permit to park in a handicapped parking space at the arsenal where McKelvey had an office job.

Arsenal officials declined Wednesday to comment on the suit.

One of McKelvey’s lawyer, Todd Weglarz of the Fieger and Fieger law firm in Southfield, said McKelvey lost his right hand, suffered serious injuries to his left hand and sustained other serious injuries while trying to disarm a road side bomb near Baghdad in 2004.

Weglarz said President Bush presented McKelvey with a Purple Heart during his recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. After spending 11 months in the hospital, McKelvey went to work at the Warren facility.

Within weeks, the harassment began, Weglarz said.

McKelvey, who now works for Oakland County Emergency Response and Preparedness, is requesting compensation for lost wages and retirement benefits and punitive damages. The case has been assigned to a U.S. district judge in Ann Arbor.