HOUSTON – A pipefitter’s lawsuit against the Houston Area Safety Council and Psychomedics, Inc. disputes the validity of a late 2016 hair sample test conducted by the defendants.
In court documents filed on July 25 in the Harris County 80th District Court, Guillermo M. Mendez explains that the test in question falsely concluded he had used cocaine.
HASC administered the hair sample test and a urinalysis while Psychomedics analyzed the specimens. According to the suit, Mendez’s employer, Turnaround Welding Services, Inc., classified the complainant as disabled because his urinalysis returned negative in addition to the “false result of the hair sample test.”
Asserting he had no prior illegal drug use before Sept. 15, 2016, Mendez states that the strand of hair he provided could have been contaminated. The original petition alleges Mendez’s hair “has an above-average concentration of melanin” which “acts as a major binding site for cocaine.”
Mendez was terminated despite submitting to a retest that indicated he did not have cocaine in his system, court papers say.
Consequently, he seeks unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial.
Robert E. Goodman, Jr. of the law firm Kilgore & Kilgore, PLLC in Dallas is representing the plaintiff.
Harris County 80th District Court Case No. 2018-49246