Illegally withheld records by use of rubber stamp

Records illegally withheld for 23 years to deny claim.     

    I first put in for my service connection for a nervious disorder in 1969, the VA accepted the claim but never processed it, then in 1974 I again put in for this condition and was turned down, re-opened many times but never told why I was turned down till 1997. This is when I hired an attorney to get me copies of my entire C file as I had a feeling I wasn’t being given all of my records.

    I was right the attorney pulled several documents aside and sent them to me with a question, have you ever seen these? The answer was NO. The records were on VA condition 9405 Dystemic disorder and bore the stamp which reads: NOT TO BE GIVEN TO THE VETERAN OR HIS SERVICE REPRESENATIVE. When I asked our Congressman what was this he sent a letter to the Regional Office St. Petersburg, Fla asking what was this. The answer from the Regional Office director was that no such records existed!

    I went back to the congressman and showed him my copies of the records that my attorney had gotten from the VA and asked him to have them verified. My Congressman sent them to the VAOIG (Instecport Generals Office of the VA). The VAOIG verified that these were in fact my records and then went on to say they didn’t know why my records were stamped this way or by whom.

    Let me explain why this is and was a problem, by doing this the VA Regional Office kept me and my service reps from ever seeing the records or using them.This is a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974.  And if any mistakes were made from these records we couldn’t correct them as we weren’t told where the mistakes came from. In short it’s like going into a court case and only one side gets discovery rights, or you could say it’s like fighting them with one hand tied behind your back.

     In my 1983 case the Board of veterans appeals said that I suffered from personality disorders because of these records and denied my claim. The records that were withheld stated just the opposite, R/O PERSONALITY DISORDERS, the R/O stands out for RULE OUT.

     This caused me to keep fighting until , finally with all records made avalible I won my case in Dec 97. But I was never compensated for all the years they withheld these records.

     These records were illegally withheld from around 1974 till 1997 and also under the Freedom of Information Act I had asked for complete copies of the records at least 6 times and was never informed that they, the VA were withholding records. This is a violation of the Appeals Section of the FOI as they can withhold records, but they must inform you that they are doing so so you can appeal for their release to you.

     I wish to inform all Vietnam Era Veterans of this problem as a DRO , (Decision Review Officer ) here in Cleveland Regional Office laughed and told me the VA did this to all Vietnam Era veterans. So if you think or smell that you weren’t treated right on any mental health claims ask for a new copy of your records and see if they are still Illegally withholding any records. As well as for the new disabled veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan don’t put it past the VA to pull similar stuff.

     Best of Luck to All P40Bob