Re: 4/21-2/03 - AP: Van de Velde Sues Yale; Former lecturer sues university over murder suspect label
Van de Velde Sues Yale
Former lecturer sues university over murder suspect label
5:13 PM EDT,April 21, 2003
Associated Press, The Hartford Courant
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A former Yale University lecturer is suing four university officials over his treatment as a suspect in the killing of student Suzanne Jovin.
James Van de Velde claims Yale violated his civil rights, causing damage to his career, health and reputation.
The lawsuit names Yale President Richard Levin, Vice President and Secretary Linda Lorimer, spokesman Thomas Conroy and the chief of the campus police, James Perrotti.
The university was added last week to a lawsuit Van de Velde filed in December 2001 against New Haven Police Chief Melvin Wearing and other police officials.
The amended lawsuit claims that the Yale officials worked with the New Haven police officials to leak Van de Velde's name to the media and to share information about him.
Police have publicly said that Van de Velde, Jovin's senior thesis adviser, is in "a pool of suspects" in Jovin's death. He has never been charged, and the murder remains unsolved.
Yale spokeswoman Helaine Klasky said the university is not surprised about the lawsuit.
"We believe Yale officials acted entirely properly throughout the investigation," Klasky said.
Jovin, 21, was found stabbed to death in an upscale residential neighborhood near campus on Dec. 4, 1998.
Tests showed that male DNA found under her fingernails was not Van de Velde's.
The lawsuit, in U.S. District Court in Hartford, seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages.
Van de Velde's lawyer, David Grudberg, would not comment Monday about why he chose to sue Yale now.
After Jovin's death, Yale canceled his classes for the semester, and Quinnipiac University dismissed him from a master's degree program in broadcast journalism. Van de Velde sued Quinnipiac for libel over the dismissal. That lawsuit has not been resolved.
Van de Velde is now working at the Pentagon and living in the Washington. D.C. area.
A $150,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Jovin's killer.
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