Sharepoint Rest API webservice not returning all values

I am updating an application to use the sharepoint Rest API

The gist of what I am trying to do is create a list item via rest webservice.

I can create the service easily.

var context = new DepartmentDataContext(new Uri("http://<server>/_vti_bin/ListData.svc"));

I can then create the list item easily, but I need to populate a lookup field with a "User" value from another list.

 var newReq = new RequestsItem();

I can query the second list to try and get the "user/Group" value

var cm = context.Departments.ToList();

I get a list full of results, but the one result I need, a "User/Group" multi-user field is empty in every record.

I can look at the list and see values when viewing from sharepoint site, but the values are null when calling them via the api.

I have been troubleshooting this error, and have seen the same behavior in other list that have user lookups, or any lookup for that matter.  The lookup values seem to not be making through with the rest of the request.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Quentin McCain