Re: 6/4/2013 - Hartford Courant: New Haven, Yale Settle Lawsuit With Van de Velde
New Haven, Yale Settle Lawsuit With Van de Velde
By DAVID OWENS, dowens@courant.comThe Hartford Courant6:56 p.m. EDT, June 4, 2013
NEW HAVEN— The former Yale lecturer who was identified by New Haven police as a "suspect" in the 1998 killing of Yale student Suzanne Jovin and later removed from his Yale teacher post has reached a settlement in lawsuits he brought against the city and the university.The terms of the settlements with James Van de Velde were not released, although his attorney, David Grudberg, said Van de Velde received money. The suit was settled May 31, according to federal court filings.
"I am pleased to announce that my legal action against senior officers of Yale University and the City of New Haven for having been wrongly labeled a suspect in the unsolved 1998 Suzanne Jovin murder investigation is officially over," Van de Velde said in a statement released by Grudberg. "I thank Magistrate Judge William I. Garfinkel, who served as mediator.
"I intend now to move forward in my career as a consultant to the U.S. intelligence community, a lecturer in security studies at Johns Hopkins University, return to the U.S. naval intelligence reserves, and now also serve as a spokesman for the wrongly accused and publicly labeled."
Van de Velde, who was Jovin's lecturer and thesis adviser, was under investigation by New Haven police within days of her murder on Dec. 4, 1998. Jovin was found at East Rock and Edgehill roads in New Haven, more than a mile from the Yale campus and about half a mile from Van de Velde's apartment.
Van de Velde was never charged in connection with the crime. No arrest has been made for Jovin's killing.
"We felt strongly he should have never been singled out as a suspect," Grudberg said Tuesday. "It took a lot of years, but this is the vindication we were looking for."
Had New Haven police not focused in on Van de Velde, the crime may have been solved, Grudberg said.
"This case highlights the dangers and terrible damage that can be done by a rush to judgment," Grudberg said. "It can inflict irreparable and terrible damage on an innocent person and it can also do awful damage to an investigation because people just focus on what they want to see and ignore other information that may be out there."
In the years since Van de Velde was labeled a suspect, he has had to rebuild his academic career, Grudberg said.
"He went from teaching at one of the most prestigious universities in the world to being a complete pariah in academia and not being able to get a call back, an interview, anything from the lowliest of educational institutions," Grudberg said.
Yale and the city of New Haven said ending the litigation was financially prudent.
"The settlement between Mr. Van de Velde, the City of New Haven and Yale was reached after lengthy discussions with Magistrate William Garfinkel serving as the mediator," Robert A. Rhodes, a lawyer representing the city, said in a statement.
"These discussions occurred over the course of approximately one year. The settlement is not an admission of liability and was done for the primary purpose of avoiding the tremendous costs associated with litigating this matter through trial and any appeal."
Yale, in a statement, said: "After a dozen years of litigation, his lawsuit had still not passed the stage of initial legal arguments on the validity of his claims. The federal district court long ago dismissed Mr. Van de Velde's claims under federal law, but it has so far preserved two state law claims.
"Yale will continue to cooperate in every way it can with the state's ongoing investigation of Ms. Jovin's tragic death, and nothing in the settlement of Mr. Van de Velde's civil lawsuit precludes further criminal investigation by the authorities. But continuing the civil litigation for several more years would serve little purpose at this point, and it would demand further time, energy, and cost with no corresponding benefit. For this reason, Yale has chosen to reach a simple, negotiated settlement to resolve the litigation."
Copyright © 2013, The Hartford Courant
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