RENO, Nev. (AP) - A federal judge is ordering a former University of Nevada, Reno professor and his former lawyer to repay more than $1.2 million to the state for having to defend against "vexatious" lawsuits.
U.S. District Court Judge James C. Mahan noted in a ruling last week that he warned former UNR agriculture professor Hussein S. Hussein and his former lawyer, Jeffrey Dickerson, in 2006 that they faced sanctions if their claims couldn't be substantiated.
Instead, the judge said, Hussein turned "a straightforward employment matter into a full-scale assault" against the university.
Hussein had alleged UNR retaliated against him after he reported the abuse of research and farm animals to federal authorities.
He was fired in 2008 after a disciplinary panel ruled he failed to pay research overhead fees.