A Tennessee state senator has been named in court papers as the physician who injected a victim of the fungal meningitis outbreak with the tainted spinal steroid that led to her lengthy illness.

In a suit filed in U.S. District Court, attorneys for Joan M. Peay of Nashville wrote that Dr. Steven Dickerson, a member of the Tennessee Senate, was the one who injected her with the steroid.

Dickerson, who is not named as a defendant in the case, injected Peay with contaminated methylprednisolone acetate on Sept. 7, 2012, at the Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center, the 31-page complaint states.

Dickerson, a Nashville Republican serving his first term, has declined to respond to questions about his role at the neurosurgical center.

The Tennessean reported Sunday that records showed Dickerson, who is an anesthesiologist, injected at least two other patients with the same drug at the same clinic in August and September of last year, just before the fungal meningitis outbreak became public.

An aide issued a brief comment late last week stating that Dickerson did not want to comment out of concern for the victims and their privacy.

Like all Nashvillians, Dr. Dickerson is focusing his concerns and thoughts on the well-being of the patients in Tennessee and throughout the United States who developed fungal meningitis, the aide wrote in an email.

The senator did not respond to a second request for comment Tuesday.

The Peay suit was one of several to be filed as a statutory deadline…