Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (880)	1/25/2001 9:33:32 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1397

Re: 1/25/01 - YDN (front page lead story): Van de Velde files defamation suits; Hartford paper among defendents Published Thursday, January 25, 2001 Van de Velde files defamation suits Hartford paper among defendents BY ANDREW PACIOREK YDN Staff Reporter Former Yale lecturer James Van de Velde '82 is separately suing the Hartford Courant and Quinnipiac University for allegedly making defamatory statements about him subsequent to the 1998 murder of Suzanne Jovin '99. More lawsuits may be on the way. Van de Velde has repeatedly said he intends to sue both Yale and the New Haven Police Department, although neither he nor his lawyer, David Grudberg '82, would comment on the possibility of further suits Wednesday. "Today, I begin my effort to hold certain Connecticut institutions and individuals accountable for their misconduct, slander and false statements, which wrongly propelled my name into the Suzanne Jovin murder investigation," Van de Velde said in a written statement. Van de Velde is the only suspect in the Jovin case whom New Haven police have named. He has never been charged in connection with the murder. The Courant suit concerns a Jan. 13, 1999, front-page article in which the newspaper, citing an unnamed source, reported that two television news reporters had filed complaints about Van de Velde with the New Haven Police Department. One of the two reporters complained because Van de Velde had harassed her after she broke off a "fledgling relationship," the Courant reported, citing a police source. But Van de Velde said Wednesday the Courant's reporting was false, defamatory and malicious and called it "slander." Moreover, he said the Courant neither sought his comment on the harassment issue nor confirmed the supposed complaints with the two women thought to have made them. "The journalists of the Hartford Courant either wrote utterly false information to defame and slander me, information which they should have known to be false, or they were manipulated by a New Haven police officer who was bent on insinuating my guilt in the Suzanne Jovin murder case by feeding misinformation to gullible journalists," Van de Velde said. The Courant, however, is standing by the article. "We believe the story was accurate," Courant Managing Editor Clifford Teutsch said. He declined to elaborate or comment further on the lawsuit. If Teutsch's belief is wrong, the paper could be in trouble. "If [the report] is not true, it's very likely actionable libel," Quinnipiac Law School professor William Dunlap said. The basis for the Quinnipiac lawsuit is considerably more complicated. Van de Velde was working towards a master's degree in broadcast journalism and taking a class at the university when Jovin was murdered Dec. 4, 1998. After Van de Velde's name appeared as a suspect in local newspapers, the head of the Quinnipiac program, Paul Steinle, sent Van de Velde a letter suspending him, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit says the letter based the suspension on the circumstances surrounding two internships held by Van de Velde with local television stations. But Van de Velde said the information regarding the internships was false and said he informed Steinle so. About a month later, Jan. 15, 1999, a report in the New Haven Register cited "sources" in revealing the substance of the letter, which was "an academic record required to be kept confidential under federal law." The lawsuit maintains the only way the Register could have obtained the information is if Steinle or some other Quinnipiac officer had leaked it. Because the information was false, the lawsuit says, its revelation to the press was an act of defamation. In addition, Quinnipiac spokeswoman Lynn Bushnell told the New York Times Jan. 28, 1999, that Quinnipiac dismissed Van de Velde for "academic reasons." Van de Velde said he had an "excellent academic reputation" that was ruined by Bushnell's false statement, another alleged act of defamation. John Morgan, Quinnipiac's director of public relations and a defendant named in the lawsuit, declined to comment on behalf of the university on any subject related to the lawsuit. "The reason they decline to tell you why I was dismissed is because they made up reasons to kick me out of their program, then refused to allow me to follow the school's procedures to appeal the suspension," Van de Velde told the Yale Daily News last night in an e-mail. "Their behavior was outrageous." Shortly after Quinnipiac terminated his enrollment, Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead relieved Van de Velde of his teaching responsibilities in the Political Science Department for the spring semester. Yale also declined to renew his one-year lecturer's contract at the end of the term. Van de Velde has said he plans to sue Yale and the NHPD and has repeatedly denounced both. "The conduct of the New Haven police in the Jovin case has been atrocious," Van de Velde said. "It is astounding how little which has been published and insinuated is remotely true. The community allows such misconduct to stand at its own peril." Through spokeswoman Judith Mongillo, New Haven Police Chief Melvin H. Wearing declined to comment Wednesday on the Courant suit or the NHPD's role in providing facts to the newspaper. yaledailynews.com