Massachusetts
Harvard and graduate students settle lawsuit over sexual harassment
BOSTON (AP) — Harvard University and three graduate students have settled a federal lawsuit accusing the Ivy League school of ignoring complaints of sexual harassment by a renowned professor and allowing him to intimidate students by threatening to hinder their careers.
The suit filed in Boston in 2022 was dismissed without court costs and with prejudice, according to an order by federal Magistrate Judge Judith Dein dated Thursday, meaning the students can’t re-litigate the claims.
Terms of the settlement were not made public.
The students’ lawyers praised their clients’ courage “in coming forward, speaking up about their experiences and shedding light on important issues.”
“We are glad that our clients will now be able to move on with their lives and careers,” the statement from Sanford Heisler Sharp said.
The lawsuit alleged that one of the students was subjected to repeated forcible kissing and groping as early as 2017 by John Comaroff, a professor of anthropology and African and African American studies. And when the student met with him to discuss her plans to study in an African country, Comaroff repeatedly said she could be subjected to violence in Africa because she was in a same-sex relationship, the lawsuit said.
The other two plaintiffs said Comaroff threatened to derail their careers after they reported his behavior to university administrators. One accused him of giving her unwanted sexual attention when she was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago.
Comaroff, 79, was not named as a defendant, and his lawyers said at the time that he “categorically denies ever harassing or retaliating against any student.” He “consistently made every effort to assist these students and to advance their careers,” their statement said.
As for the discussion about the dangers of possible violence in the African country, he said his advice was appropriate, motivated by concern for her safety if she traveled with a same-sex partner — a warning similar to what’s published by the U.S. State Department.
Comaroff said in a July statement announcing his retirement from Harvard that the lawsuit “repeated all of the allegations already found to lack merit” during a Harvard investigation, but “in more lurid,
hyperbolic terms” to make him a scapegoat in their fight against the university.
“All this extraordinary attention, all the furor, all the nastiness, arose out of two brief office-hour discussions, both academic in intent and content,” Comaroff wrote. “An ugly, ferocious campaign had been waged against me at Harvard by a small group of activists, people who have no knowledge of me, of my pedagogy, or of the facts of the case as established by Harvard’s thorough, largely exonerating investigation.”
At the time the lawsuit was filed in 2022, a Harvard spokesperson shared a letter saying Comaroff was put on administrative leave for the rest of that spring semester after university investigators found his verbal conduct violated the school’s sexual, gender-based and professional conduct policies.
Before the lawsuit went to mediation in November, lawyers for Harvard had argued for a dismissal, saying the statute of limitations had expired for some claims and that others lacked merit.
Alabama
Family agrees to settle lawsuit against officer whose police dog killed man
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The family of a man killed by a police dog in Montgomery, Alabama, has agreed to settle its federal lawsuit against the police officer who handled the animal, but their lawyers said Friday that they plan to appeal a ruling that cleared the city of responsibility.
The confidential settlement was reached in July in the 2019 lawsuit against Montgomery officer Nicholas Barber, who was responsible for the K9 that attacked and killed then 50-year-old Joseph Pettaway in 2018.
Pettaway was sleeping in a small house where he was employed as a handyman when officers responded to a call that reported an unknown occupant, according to court documents. Almost immediately after the officers arrived, Barber released the dog into the house where it found Pettaway and bit into his groin.
The bite severed Pettaway’s femoral artery, autopsy reports showed. Officers took Pettaway outside where he bled out while waiting for paramedics, according to family’s lawsuit.
“I hope that the case for the family brings some closure for something that is a long time coming,” said their attorney, Griffin Sikes.
The Associated Press has investigated and documented thousands of cases across the U.S. where police tactics considered non-lethal have resulted in fatalities. The nationwide database includes Pettaway’s case.
The lawsuit also named the City of Montgomery and its police chief at the time, Ernest Finley, alleging that the officers had been trained not to provide first aid.
“The Supreme Court has decided that cities and counties are responsible for administering medical care when they arrest somebody,” said Sikes. “We think they failed to do that in this case, and it is not a failure of the individual officers, but a failure of the city that says you’re not to provide medical care”
The claims against the city and the chief were dismissed, but Sikes said the Pettaway family plans on appealing.
Attorneys for Barber, Finley and the City of Montgomery did not respond to an emailed request for comment sent by The Associated Press on Friday morning.
Body camera recordings showing what happened have never been made public. It took years of litigating for the Pettaway family and their lawyers to see them. The judge sided with the city, which said revealing them could create “potential for protests which could endanger the safety of law enforcement officers, the public and private property.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerusha T. Adams suggested that the family was “attempting to try this case in the informal court of public opinion, rather than in the courtroom.”
Harvard and graduate students settle lawsuit over sexual harassment
BOSTON (AP) — Harvard University and three graduate students have settled a federal lawsuit accusing the Ivy League school of ignoring complaints of sexual harassment by a renowned professor and allowing him to intimidate students by threatening to hinder their careers.
The suit filed in Boston in 2022 was dismissed without court costs and with prejudice, according to an order by federal Magistrate Judge Judith Dein dated Thursday, meaning the students can’t re-litigate the claims.
Terms of the settlement were not made public.
The students’ lawyers praised their clients’ courage “in coming forward, speaking up about their experiences and shedding light on important issues.”
“We are glad that our clients will now be able to move on with their lives and careers,” the statement from Sanford Heisler Sharp said.
The lawsuit alleged that one of the students was subjected to repeated forcible kissing and groping as early as 2017 by John Comaroff, a professor of anthropology and African and African American studies. And when the student met with him to discuss her plans to study in an African country, Comaroff repeatedly said she could be subjected to violence in Africa because she was in a same-sex relationship, the lawsuit said.
The other two plaintiffs said Comaroff threatened to derail their careers after they reported his behavior to university administrators. One accused him of giving her unwanted sexual attention when she was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago.
Comaroff, 79, was not named as a defendant, and his lawyers said at the time that he “categorically denies ever harassing or retaliating against any student.” He “consistently made every effort to assist these students and to advance their careers,” their statement said.
As for the discussion about the dangers of possible violence in the African country, he said his advice was appropriate, motivated by concern for her safety if she traveled with a same-sex partner — a warning similar to what’s published by the U.S. State Department.
Comaroff said in a July statement announcing his retirement from Harvard that the lawsuit “repeated all of the allegations already found to lack merit” during a Harvard investigation, but “in more lurid,
hyperbolic terms” to make him a scapegoat in their fight against the university.
“All this extraordinary attention, all the furor, all the nastiness, arose out of two brief office-hour discussions, both academic in intent and content,” Comaroff wrote. “An ugly, ferocious campaign had been waged against me at Harvard by a small group of activists, people who have no knowledge of me, of my pedagogy, or of the facts of the case as established by Harvard’s thorough, largely exonerating investigation.”
At the time the lawsuit was filed in 2022, a Harvard spokesperson shared a letter saying Comaroff was put on administrative leave for the rest of that spring semester after university investigators found his verbal conduct violated the school’s sexual, gender-based and professional conduct policies.
Before the lawsuit went to mediation in November, lawyers for Harvard had argued for a dismissal, saying the statute of limitations had expired for some claims and that others lacked merit.
Alabama
Family agrees to settle lawsuit against officer whose police dog killed man
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The family of a man killed by a police dog in Montgomery, Alabama, has agreed to settle its federal lawsuit against the police officer who handled the animal, but their lawyers said Friday that they plan to appeal a ruling that cleared the city of responsibility.
The confidential settlement was reached in July in the 2019 lawsuit against Montgomery officer Nicholas Barber, who was responsible for the K9 that attacked and killed then 50-year-old Joseph Pettaway in 2018.
Pettaway was sleeping in a small house where he was employed as a handyman when officers responded to a call that reported an unknown occupant, according to court documents. Almost immediately after the officers arrived, Barber released the dog into the house where it found Pettaway and bit into his groin.
The bite severed Pettaway’s femoral artery, autopsy reports showed. Officers took Pettaway outside where he bled out while waiting for paramedics, according to family’s lawsuit.
“I hope that the case for the family brings some closure for something that is a long time coming,” said their attorney, Griffin Sikes.
The Associated Press has investigated and documented thousands of cases across the U.S. where police tactics considered non-lethal have resulted in fatalities. The nationwide database includes Pettaway’s case.
The lawsuit also named the City of Montgomery and its police chief at the time, Ernest Finley, alleging that the officers had been trained not to provide first aid.
“The Supreme Court has decided that cities and counties are responsible for administering medical care when they arrest somebody,” said Sikes. “We think they failed to do that in this case, and it is not a failure of the individual officers, but a failure of the city that says you’re not to provide medical care”
The claims against the city and the chief were dismissed, but Sikes said the Pettaway family plans on appealing.
Attorneys for Barber, Finley and the City of Montgomery did not respond to an emailed request for comment sent by The Associated Press on Friday morning.
Body camera recordings showing what happened have never been made public. It took years of litigating for the Pettaway family and their lawyers to see them. The judge sided with the city, which said revealing them could create “potential for protests which could endanger the safety of law enforcement officers, the public and private property.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerusha T. Adams suggested that the family was “attempting to try this case in the informal court of public opinion, rather than in the courtroom.”
