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Pastimes : Murder Mystery: Who Killed Yale Student Suzanne Jovin? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (879)	1/25/2001 9:25:37 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1397

Re: 1/25/01 - NH Register (front page headline): Ex-Yale lecturer sues Quinnipiac Ex-Yale lecturer sues Quinnipiac Walter Kita, Register Staff January 25, 2001 [picture] Van de Velde NEW HAVEN — A former Yale instructor identified as a suspect in the slaying of one of his students is suing Quinnipiac University for defamation, claiming the school wrongfully dismissed him from a master’s degree program soon after news reports linked him to the case. James R. Van de Velde alleges that Quinnipiac officials made "false, defamatory and malicious" statements about him to reporters in their explanations for his dismissal from the school’s broadcast journalism program. The suit does not specify the amount of financial damages being sought. It was filed Wednesday in Superior Court. Quinnipiac has cited academic reasons for its decision, but Van de Velde and his attorney, David Grudberg, maintain the dismissal was prompted by negative publicity stemming from a police investigation into the murder of Yale senior Suzanne Jovin. The case drew international media attention. Wednesday’s suit comes one day after Van de Velde and Grudberg notified the Hartford Courant of their intent to sue the paper for libel stemming from a Jan. 13, 1999, story related to the Jovin case. "Today, I begin my effort to hold certain Connecticut institutions and individuals accountable for their misconduct, slander and false statements," Van de Velde said Wednesday in a statement issued through Grudberg’s office. Van de Velde has not been charged and continues to deny any involvement in Jovin’s killing. Van de Velde was an instructor in Yale’s political science department and was Jovin’s thesis adviser at the time of her death. She was stabbed to death in the city’s East Rock neighborhood Dec. 4, 1998. In January 1999, police named Van de Velde as belonging to a "pool of suspects" in the case. No other suspects were named. Soon after, Yale relieved him of his teaching duties, saying his presence in the classroom would be a "major distraction" to students. Yale did not renew his contract for the fall 1999 semester. "Over the last 24 months I have learned a great deal about the conduct of the administrations of Yale and Quinnipiac universities and how I became embroiled in the investigation," Van de Velde’s statement reads. "Today, I hold officials at Quinnipiac University accountable for their libel and extending the insinuation that I could have been responsible for the murder of my student." His suit against Quinnipiac alleges that as a result of the Hamden school’s actions he has "suffered loss of employment and employment opportunity" as well as "pain, anxiety and mental anguish and humiliation." Van de Velde lives in Virginia, according to the suit. Grudberg would not comment on Van de Velde’s employment status. Quinnipiac’s director of public relations, John Morgan, refused to comment on the matter Wednesday. Morgan is one of the Quinnipiac officials named in the suit. The others are school President John Lahey, journalism Professor Paul Steinle and Lynne Bushnell, the school’s vice president for communications. Van de Velde began taking classes in Quinnipiac’s master’s program in broadcast journalism in September 1998, just as he was preparing to begin teaching international diplomacy at Yale. Steinle sent him a dismissal notification on Dec. 10, one day after the Register reported that a Yale faculty member had emerged as a suspect in the Jovin slaying. The story did not name Van de Velde. Print and television news media subsequently reported that police had questioned him for several hours in connection with the case. Soon after Yale relieved him of his teaching duties in January 1999, the Register reported on Quinnipiac’s decision to oust Van de Velde from the broadcast journalism program. The Jan. 15 story quoted a source as saying that Van de Velde’s failure to complete two internships was the impetus for the move. Those are the same reasons Steinle cited in his December letter to Van de Velde, according to the suit. Van de Velde maintains he completed all the course requirements. "The January 15th false statements (by the source) were a pretext attempting to justify Quinnipiac’s suspension of (Van de Velde) after he was publicly linked to a high profile murder investigation," the lawsuit reads. The separate lawsuit against the Courant was filed over a Jan. 13, 1999, report that two female television reporters had complained to New Haven police that he was harassing them. The women had met Van de Velde while he worked internships at two stations prior to the Jovin slaying. The suit accuses the Courant of printing "false, defamatory and malicious" information. "We believe the story was accurate," said Clifford Teutsch, the newspaper’s managing editor. In a separate statement issued Wednesday Van de Velde criticized the New Haven police department for its handling of the Jovin case. Van de Velde called the police department’s investigation "atrocious." The Associated Press contributed to this story. ©New Haven Register 2001 zwire.com

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (879)	3/16/2001 3:20:47 PM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1397

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.