By Scott Sonner
The Associated Press
RENO - The University of Nevada, Reno, asked state agents Wednesday to take over an investigation into allegations of retaliation against a whistleblower who sparked a federal probe of the school's agricultural programs.
UNR president John Lilley asked the Nevada Department of Investigation to conduct a "thorough, independent investigation" into the "allegations of irregularities" in a lab in the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources, said John Frederick, UNR executive vice president and provost.
"No one is more committed to getting to the bottom of these allegations than are we," Frederick said at a hastily called news conference.
"Dr. Lilley and I both reject the implication that we, or any of our colleagues, would do anything less than treat our faculty, our students and our staff with the respect they deserve," he said, reading a statement. He refused to take questions.
The whistleblower, UNR associate professor Hussein S. Hussein, filed a federal lawsuit against the school late last year, claiming he was the target of reprisals after he notified the U.S. Agriculture Department of alleged animal abuse at UNR barns and holding pens.
The Reno Gazette-Journal, which published a series of stories on the allegations of abused cattle and sheep in December, reported Wednesday that three graduate students working for Hussein told Reno police and Washoe County sheriff's deputies that intruders have been contaminating their lab experiments in recent weeks to try to discredit Hussein.
In addition, Hussein said he hired a private detective who discovered a hidden video camera in a hallway smoke detector outside his campus office.
University police say the camera was installed with Lilley's approval to monitor an area where a possible hate crime might have occurred. Hussein and his students said they think the camera is part of an orchestrated effort to intimidate them.
"Somebody is trying to scare me and my students and destroy our research," Hussein, an internationally known animal nutritionist, told The Associated Press.
The graduate students said intruders apparently have been entering their secured lab with a key and that UNR police have done nothing about it despite possibly capturing images of the suspects on the hidden video camera.
UNR police said the camera was installed after a swastika was drawn on a lab door in the hall.
The newspaper reported that UNR officials did not acknowledge the presence of the camera until private investigators hired by Hussein found it and a photographer for the newspaper took pictures of the device.
UNR police have refused to identify the professor who they say noticed the Nazi symbol and erased it before reporting it.
The three students said UNR officials have treated them like suspects rather than victims. One has filed a "witness intimidation" incident report against David Thawley, dean of agriculture.
"I really hope filing the report and telling my story will protect me from further harassment and retaliation," said Laurie Bollinger, 23, one of the graduate students.
Hussein filed a complaint with the USDA in August and another in September, alleging his whistle-blowing activities led to retaliation by UNR.
He also has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Reno against UNR, Thawley and Professor Esmail Zanjani, claiming university officials discriminated against him because of his complaints about hiring practices and alleged animal abuse.
UNR officials have said they are confident the USDA will make no findings of animal abuse, neglect or retaliation.
Hussein and others said in the newspaper series published in December that 38 pregnant ewes died in 2002 at UNR's farm in Reno after being locked in a paddock without food or water.
They charged UNR has allowed dead animals to rot on the ground at its farm, and that the college cannot show the roughly 200 sheep used for stem-cell research each year were disposed of legally.