Houston doctor cleared of COVID vaccine theft charges will sue county seeking over $1 million
CBSN
A Houston doctor says he was punished for administering expiring vaccine doses, and he is ready to strike back. Dr. Hasan Gokal was fired from his job. A few weeks after he was fired, Harris County's District Attorney, Kim Ogg charged him with stealing vaccine doses. In January, a judge decided there was no probable cause to charge Gokal. Ogg then took the case to a grand jury, but in June the grand jury declined to indict him. The charges against him were dropped.
CBS Morning's lead national correspondent David Begnaud reports that Gokal plans to sue the Harris County Public Health District within the next 72 hours.
Gokal claims he was discriminated against on the basis of race and national origin when he was fired. The story of his firing and the subsequent filing of criminal charges gained international attention when it broke, but the headlines were not as prominent and glaring when the criminal case that the District Attorney brought against Gokal fell apart.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.