The California Equestrian Board’s medical director, Jeff Blea, filed a lawsuit against the state’s Veterinary Medical Council alleging that the regulator had improperly suspended him.
Employed by the University of California schools, Blea said in a lawsuit filed February 24 in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles that he retired from private veterinary practice on May 30. 6, 2021, to take up the position of equine medical officer. director July 1, 2021.
In a February 24 application, Blea asked for a January 28 sentence by a hearing officer to uphold the suspension of his veterinary license being shelved. The filing notes that in her EMD role, Blea does not perform veterinary work. It argued that Blea was therefore not subject to disciplinary action by the Veterinary Health Commission and asked for an injunction to be granted to lift the suspension and to issue an injunction to prevent further action by the VMB.
KING: Blea stays on after license suspension is upheld
The hearing officer in the January 28 decision noted that reinstating Blea’s license would allow him to return to practice veterinary medicine.
Blea was formerly one of Southern California’s top vets. He was one of three equine veterinarians to receive a VMB complaint at the end of December, along with Dr Vince Baker and Dr Sarah Graybill Jones.
