Re: 11/28/01 - NH Register: Van de Velde reveals mindset
Note: Corrections (by me, Jeff) contained in footnotes
Van de Velde reveals mindset
Randall Beach, Register Staff November 28, 2001
NEW HAVEN - James Van de Velde, the only person named by police as a suspect in the slaying of Yale student Suzanne Jovin, says in a court deposition [1] that the publicity adversely affected his mind and "spirit."
Van de Velde's description of his mental state was revealed during his recent deposition in the civil suit he filed against Quinnipiac University in Superior Court, New Haven.
Van de Velde said he plans to file new lawsuits soon, probably before Tuesday [2], the third anniversary of Jovin's death. He did not elaborate, but in the past has said he intends to sue Yale University, the New Haven Police Department and perhaps other parties.
There is a three-year statute of limitations on civil claims.
Van de Velde, 41, has said Yale unfairly refused to allow him to do classroom work during the semester after the murder [3]. Yale has said it removed him from the classroom because his presence would have been a distraction. Van de Velde has also alleged that the police botched the investigation and should never have named him as a suspect.
An intent to sue the Police Department has not been filed in the City Clerk's office, according to an official there.
Van de Velde sued Quinnipiac in January for defamation, claiming the school wrongfully dismissed him from a master's degree program soon after news reports that he was a suspect in Jovin's death.
He alleged Quinnipiac officials made "false, defamatory and malicious" statements about him while explaining why he was dismissed from the broadcast journalism program.
Quinnipiac officials have said he was dismissed for academic reasons [4].
Van de Velde, who has also sued the Hartford Courant for libel, has consistently maintained his innocence in the crime. Nobody has been charged in the case.
Jovin, 21, was stabbed to death on a corner in the city's East Rock neighborhood [5].
Police revealed in October that DNA had been recovered from under Jovin's fingernails and tests showed it was not Van de Velde's [6]. But they said they still could not eliminate him as a suspect.
In court documents for the Quinnipiac suit, Van de Velde and his attorney, David Grudberg, alleged, "Plaintiff has suffered physical, emotional, economic and non-economic damage since first being publicly identified in the New Haven Register on Dec. 9, 1998, as supposedly the prime suspect in the murder of his student, Suzanne Jovin."
The Register on that date reported that a "Yale educator who taught Suzanne Jovin" was the lead suspect in the murder, but did not name Van de Velde.
Later that day, TV and newspaper reporters went to Van de Velde's office to ask whether he was the person being questioned by police. He allowed the TV and newspaper reporters to interview him and denied any involvement in Jovin's murder. He said he had told police the same thing [7].
In the court documents, the plaintiffs said on Jan. 11, 1999, Yale University and/or the New Haven Police Department identified Van de Velde as being among a "pool of suspects" in the Jovin investigation.
In the writ, Van de Velde said he has suffered: "loss of short-term memory, lethargy of spirit, lethargy of daily ability" and a "numbing feeling, especially when I had to hear about, or deal with, the case."
Van de Velde, who now works at the Pentagon in the Defense Declassification Referral Center, also said in the document he has an "inability to maintain focus on detail/inability to concentrate."
He added he has an "inability to read long text/inability to perform mathematical computations I used to be able to perform without difficulty."
In addition, Van de Velde said he experiences "involuntary shaking when news reports are heard that insinuate my guilt in the murder of my student."
He said since April 2000, he has visited doctors, including psychologists, 31 times.
He said his other symptoms include anxiety, depression, an "inability to experience pleasure" and a "loss of self-respect, self-esteem and self-confidence."
Register reporter William Kaempffer contributed to this story.
©New Haven Register 2001
zwire.com
[1] The source document was a written interrogatory, not a deposition. Van de Velde has never been deposed by Quinnipiac.
[2] "Probably by Tuesday" is pure speculation.
[3] Yale never refused to allow Van de Velde to do classroom work.
[4] Quinnipiac actually wrote that they had suspended Van de Velde because of information they claimed to have received from WVIT and WTNH about his internships there. Quinnipiac officials were informed -- prior to leaks to the press -- that their claims were absolutely untrue. The Complaint itself can be viewed at Message 15253819
[5] There is no evidence or NHPD statement that proves or alleges Suzanne Jovin was 'stabbed to death on a corner in the East Rock's neighborhood' of New Haven. She was found there bleeding to death, having been stabbed, and she died.
[6] It was Assistant State's Attorney Michael Dearington, not Wearing or the NHPD, who revealed DNA existed under the fingernails of Suzanne Jovin. Dearington specifically ducked the question about whether Van de Velde was a suspect and still refuses to call him one.
[7] Ned Berkowitz of WTNH stalked Van de Velde outside his dentist's office at 9:40am December 9, 1998 and asked him whether he was the person questioned the previous night and whether he "hurt" Suzanne Jovin. "He allowed the TV and newspaper reporters to interview him" was 6 hours later after Channel 8 aired the ambush interview on the noon news. |
