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Ivy League School Faces Wrongful Death Lawsuit By Teresa Cajot Last week a ten-page lawsuit was filed at the Superior Court in New Haven on behalf of the family of Annie Le, a Yale University graduate student who was murdered on campus in September of 2009. Yale University and the Yale School of Medicine were both named in the lawsuit, which seeks undefined compensation.
According to the lawsuit, Yale has a ‘’well-documented and long-standing problem’’ with harassment and sexual attacks on women but has failed to address the situation in a suitable manner. The lawsuit further states that the university did not investigate the missing student until the morning after her disappearance was noted. Le, 24, was last seen alive at the Yale Animal Research Center, which is located at Yale School of Medicine. As a third-year doctoral student in pharmacology, she used the center for research purposes. On September 8, 2009, she swiped her card and entered the building at 10:11 in the morning but never came out. Police dogs tracked her body upside down in a wall in the lab on September 13, 2009, the day she was supposed to get married. According to the state medical examiner, Le had been beaten and strangled. In June, Raymond Clark III, who worked as a lab technician at the center during the time of the slaying, was sentenced to 44 years in prison for the murder. The sentence was established as a part of a plea agreement in which Clark pleaded guilty to murder and a criminal attempt to sexually assault Le. Because the sexual assault plea was entered under the so-called Alford Doctrine, Clark, 26, did not admit guilt but did admit that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him on the charge at trial. At his sentencing earlier this summer, Clark apologized to his family and the family of his victim. He is not eligible for parole.
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Attorneys Paul Slager of Stamford and Joseph Tacopina of New York, who are representing Le’s family, noted that last March a complaint was filed with the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights by 16 students and alumni. According to the complaint, sexual hostility is tolerated at Yale University while little consideration is given to complaints on the issue. The claim is currently under investigation. The family’s attorneys have further suggested that Yale was aware of Clark’s propensity toward violence towards women. ‘’Based on Yale’s negligence in, among other things, hiring, retaining and supervising Clark, and providing a safe and secure environment for Annie Le, Ms. Lee endured a brutal physical and sexual attack, resulting in significant conscious suffering before her death, for which Yale is liable,’’ said Slager and Tacopina in a statement. However, on Tuesday, Yale issued a statement declaring that the university had no previous knowledge ‘’that Raymond Clark was capable of committing this terrible crime.’’ The statement also noted that ‘’no reasonable security measures could have prevented’’ the attack on Le. Attorneys for the family have not clarified what prior information the school allegedly had on Clark that would suggest that he was a potential danger to anyone on the campus.
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