Acquitted Yale student is suing women’s groups for calling him a rapist

An expelled Yale student who was acquitted of sexual assault charges in 2018 is now suing 15 women’s advocacy groups and a lawyer for defamation after being called a “rapist” in a filing she -they filed in a 2022 procedure.

Saifullah Khan, a 31-year-old native of Afghanistan, said the organizations, which include the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence and the National Women’s Law Center, repeated his accuser’s allegations as facts, such as writing: “When Jane Doe he was in college. , the complainant raped her’ and referred to Khan as ‘her rapist’.

While the language was changed, Khan says his reputation was damaged and he suffered “economic and non-economic damages.” His lawsuit, which seeks financial damages, said the original draft of the patent “remains published, indefinitely” on the Connecticut Judicial Branch website and was also published online by women’s and donor advocacy groups.

“We would like them to understand that there is harm to someone when you just label them,” said Alex Taubes, Khan’s attorney. “Nobody could complain about it if they were found guilty. But does he want to see that when you are actually found not guilty, is there any justification? Is there any way to represent you at that time?”

Also, Swing Yale

Although Khan was acquitted by a jury of four counts of sexual assault in May 2018, he was expelled from Yale in November 2018 following a university investigation and sexual assault disciplinary proceeding. He sued both Yale and his accuser, and that case is pending in federal court.

As part of that case, the Connecticut State Supreme Court was asked to consider whether the accuser should be immune from civil suit for comments made during the university proceeding. Various women’s rights groups have argued that such immunity is crucial to prevent rape victims from coming forward.

The court, however, ruled 7-0 last year that because Khan had fewer rights to defend himself in university proceedings than he would have in criminal court, his accuser could not benefit fully from the immunity granted to witnesses in criminal proceedings . As in many US universities, Yale’s proceedings do not subject accusers to cross-examination and do not require witnesses to testify under oath.

Messages seeking comment were left with the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence and the National Women’s Law Center, as well as Jennifer Becker, the former legal director of the women’s advocacy group Legal Momentum, which filed the original amicus brief in the highest court in Connecticut. . In a response to an ethics complaint Khan filed against her, Becker wrote that when she drafted the patent, “I fully believed that my statements were fully supported by the record.”

Becker said he “felt the drafted language was overzealous and unnecessarily strong.” But she noted in her statement how the patent was renewed, “devoid of all facts not supported by the record,” as the judges ordered, and the court never admonished her for the language she used in the original or found that it was inappropriate.

“Furthermore, any overzealousness on my part was ameliorated by the Court’s order and no prejudice to Mr. Kahn resulted,” she wrote, noting that the language she complained about had been removed.

Legal experts said the Connecticut state Supreme Court’s decision last year could be a major precedent cited in other lawsuits by students accused of sexual misconduct challenging the fairness of their schools’ disciplinary procedures.

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