Re: 3/15/01 - Hartford Courant RETRACTION: Setting the Record Straight
The following appeared on Page 2 of the March 15 Hartford Courant:
Setting the Record Straight
On Jan. 13, 1999, The Courant published a front-page article about James Van de Velde, a then-lecturer at Yale University whom the school had identified as among a pool of suspects in the 1998 slaying of Yale student Suzanne Jovin.
In that article, "From Pillar to Pariah," The Courant reported, among other things, that Van de Velde "was the target of police complaints filed by two local television reporters." The story stated that, "Both filed complaints with the New Haven police although no action was ever taken, sources said. In one case, Van de Velde was accused of looking into the windows at the home of one of the reporters, and constantly phoning her after she broke off a fledgling relationship, a police source said."
Van de Velde has since sued The Courant, saying those statements were inaccurate.
Upon review, The Courant believes that one of the reporters, who could not be reached for comment
for the original article, did not file a formal complaint with the New Haven Police. Rather she was interviewed by them as part of their Jovin investigation. She told police she believed Van de Velde had been spying on her.
The other reporter formally complained to police in Branford, not New Haven, that she had been
getting hang-up telephone calls. Though she speculated that they might have come from Van de Velde, she had no evidence of that and asked police not to contact him, according to a copy of the complaint. New Haven police also later interviewed her as part of the Jovin case.
Van de Velde denies ever spying on or harassing either woman, and neither woman's statement resulted in any charges against Van de Velde, who also has not been charged in connection with Jovin's death. |
