U.S. District Judge Pushes UCLA and Brentwood School to Resolve Issues
Many people in West Los Angeles have been wondering what would come of the recent ruling by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter in regards to the facilities leased by the Veterans Administration of Los Angeles to UCLA and the Brentwood School. Those questions were partially answered on Wednesday when the judge ordered UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium closed by noon on Thursday, September 26.
Judge Carter even told those in the courtroom that he would personally go to the stadium Thursday to ensure his order was followed.
Rob Reynolds, an Iraq War veteran, said, “It’s just disheartening that Brentwood School and UCLA, all they’re doing is trying to argue that they’re not in violation of the law when the law is very simple. anything on that property has to principally benefit veterans and their families. This has been an issue for decades and the judge is seeing everything we have seen over the years that the VA has continued to enter into illegal land use agreements with UCLA, Brentwood School, Bridgeland Oil, and Safety Park,” as quoted by ABC 7 News.
Carter’s rulings have come down strongly on the side of the veterans who sued to make sure that the VA would fulfill the originally deeded purpose of the land, which was to benefit and house veterans. This latest ruling was issued after the judge called Interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt to court under the threat that he would cordon off the facility if Hunt did not show up. The hearing’s purpose was to find a way for UCLA and the Brentwood School’s leases to end.
Hunt did not arrive until 7:00 p.m. and listened to UCLA’s lawyer read the school’s latest proposal, which the judge rejected in a terse ruling. Carter said, “The VA is ordered by noon tomorrow to cordon off and prevent any use of the UCLA baseball stadium and practice field until further notice from the court.”, as quoted by the Los Angeles Times.
The Brentwood School’s Attorney Louis “Skip” Miller’s proposal from the school was to return five out of the currently leased 22 acres of VA land to which the judge responded, “[The court] was not going to accept a trade-off of five acres for 17,” and added that “If you don’t come up with something positive, that 22 acres is null and void.”
The judge also threatened to fill the Brentwood School facility’s pool with sand or bulldoze the facility entirely but expressed that the veterans would be willing to allow Brentwood School students to share the facilities whose ownership would be returned to them. He also stated that he would rather not do any of these things.
The veteran’s attorney Roman Silberfeld stated that the two sides had come to terms that would increase the payments for the UCLA and Brentwood facilities to a market rate and the “mechanism” for the VA to regain access to the land that is necessary for the housing for veterans to be built.
UCLA issued a lengthy statement, which said in part, “UCLA Athletics is actively working to adjust operations and training, as this means our students are no longer able to access Jackie Robinson Stadium. We hope for a swift legal resolution that lets our student-athletes return to the facility.”
The stadium is the home of UCLA’s baseball team which now has no place to play until UCLA comes up with a plan that will benefit veterans and satisfy his requirements.
