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An Indian law professor at University of California, Berkeley is suing the prestigious university for what he claims is racial discrimination in handling allegations of sexual harassment against him. The university says it will launch a vigorous defense.
Law Professor Sujit Choudhry, former dean of the Berkeley law school, in a federal lawsuit filed Sept. 15, in Oakland, California, claims the university broke with tradition in taking very aggressive steps against him, in contrast to past cases of sexual harassment which involved white faculty or staff. Law.com reported quoting from the brief.
“By targeting Professor Choudhry, who is of South Asian descent and a non-U.S. citizen, the university hopes to deflect attention from its failure to meaningfully punish Caucasian faculty and administrators who were found to have committed appalling sexual misconduct,” the complaint says, Law.com reported.
Dan Mogulof, a spokesman for UC-Berkeley, told News India Times the university was made aware of this new litigation only on Sept. 15 afternoon and that counsel had not yet had an opportunity to thoroughly review the complaint. “At this point what can be said is that the University intends to mount a vigorous and successful defense,” Mogulof told News India Times in an email response.
Last year, Choudhry’s assistant Tyann Sorrell, alleged he had kissed her and touched her in inappropriate ways. The university held an internal investigation which led to a settlement with Choudhry in which he stepped down as dean though continuing in his post as a tenured law professor, and also agreed to pay cuts. Choudhry also rendered an apology to Sorrell at that time as required by the university.
However, when his former assistant filed a sexual harassment case against him this March, the university re-opened its investigation, a step which Choudhry’s attorney William Taylor, told News India Times, was an egregious violation of the university’s own rules of procedure. Choudhry’s law suit claims Berkeley’s investigation of his conduct is an attempt to strip him of tenure and expel him, and that “A second investigation of identical conduct is not contemplated anywhere in UC Berkeley’s written disciplinary policies,” Law.com quoted from the brief. The brief refers to the case of former Berkeley Vice Chancellor for Research Graham Fleming who it says did not face any faculty disciplinary action after he resigned his position, nor a second investigation. Fleming is Caucasian.
Taylor, Choudhry’s attorney from the Washington, D.C.- based law firm of Zuckerman Spaeder did not return calls by press time. According to Law.com, Zuckerman Spaeder is working with the San Francisco law firm of Futterman Dupree Dodd Croley Maier in Choudhry’s defense.
The post Professor Accused Of Sexual Harassment Claims Racial Discrimination appeared first on News India Times.
