Re: 3/30/00 - Jovins say Yale's 20/20 denials are 'hypocritical'
Jovins say Yale's 20/20 denials are 'hypocritical'
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BY MICHAEL BARBARO AND MICHAEL HORN
YDN Staff Reporters
Published 3/30/00
The parents of slain Davenport senior Suzanne Jovin '99 are calling on Yale to "spare Suzanne and us the hypocrisy" of denials, claiming they warned University officials about their spokesman's controversial comments on the murder to ABC News a full month before the show aired.
In a letter to the Yale Daily News, Tom and Donna Jovin wrote that Yale has consistently proven callous in dealing with their daughter and the ongoing investigation into her death, denying the family access to Suzanne's graduate school recommendations until the state's attorney's office stepped in, ignoring Jovin's complaints about her senior thesis adviser in the days before her death and now denying statements broadcast by ABC.
The letter is the latest installment of a "he-said-she-said" style war of words between the University, ABC and friends of Jovin over Yale's participation in a 20/20 investigation into the 15-month-old murder investigation. Jovin, a 21-year-old political science major from Goettingen, Germany, was stabbed to death about a mile north of campus Dec. 4, 1998.
The Jovins warned University Vice President and Secretary Linda Lorimer in a Jan. 26 e-mail -- a month before ABC broadcast its investigation -- that Yale deputy spokesman Thomas Conroy told ABC the University wanted to "put [the murder] behind" it and move on and that the remarks would be read on the show, according to the letter published today.
Conroy has denied making the comments attributed to him by ABC. But ABC stands by them.
"Yale had over a month to revise their original position represented by Mr. Conroy to ABC. It did nothing," the Jovins wrote. "Thus the statements by Yale . . . in reaction to the outcry on and off campus to the callous position of the University reported on 20/20 program are disingenuous, hypocritical, self-serving."
Lorimer said she received Tom Jovin's January e-mail but that when she checked it with the Yale Office of Public Affairs, where Conroy works, officers there denied those statements were ever made to ABC. Lorimer said she did not check with ABC herself to see if the remarks attributed to Conroy would be used in the internationally broadcast show.
ABC producers aired the remarks, which they claim Conroy made repeatedly in interviews, during 20/20's March 1 broadcast. They also claim Conroy said the remarks were Yale's official position on the case.
The Jovins claim Yale denied their request for copies of the graduate school recommendations obtained by their daughter before her death, adding that "it would seem Yale disallows the rights of the deceased victim."
Lorimer said the recommendations, kept on file in Davenport College, were confidential and therefore the University could not release them to Tom and Donna Jovin. The University, however, did forward the recommendations to the Connecticut state's attorney's office when the office requested them, Lorimer said.
In their letter, the Jovins also said Dean Susan Hauser, former director of Yale's Undergraduate Career Services, failed to act on Suzanne's complaints about her senior thesis advisor, former Yale lecturer James Van de Velde, the only publically named suspect in Jovin's murder.
Hauser could not be reached for comment last night. Van de Velde has repeatedly denied any involvement in the murder.
The Jovins also charge that Yale officials denied ABC the right to video tape the Davenport courtyard, where their daughter's memorial stone lies, until they intervened.
In the letter the Jovins condemned the University's behavior after the murder. They contend the University blocked "police attempts to secure information important in developing leads" in the case.
"I'm appalled by that accusation because the University has been working continuously since Dec. 5, 1998 to lend our assistance to the New Haven police to get this murder solved," Lorimer said.
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