Yale settles lawsuit over slain grad student

Le’s family filed the lawsuit in 2011, alleging Yale had failed to adequately protect women on campus for years. Yale officials denied the allegations and said no additional security at the lab building, which required key card access, would have stopped the killing.

Paul Slager, a lawyer for Le’s family, declined to comment Tuesday and said Le’s relatives would not be discussing the settlement, which is confidential.

An attorney for Yale, Patrick Noonan, and Yale spokesman Thomas Conroy also declined to comment.

The lawsuit alleged Yale officials should have known that Clark posed a potential danger to Le’s safety, because he had previously demonstrated aggressive behaviour and a “violent propensity towards women.”

Yale also denied that allegation, saying in a statement after the lawsuit was filed that it had no information indicating that Clark was capable of “committing this terrible crime.”

Le’s relatives have said that what should have been a joyous wedding suddenly turned into mourning the loss of a woman whose research included finding new treatments for chronic diseases. She was a doctoral pharmacology student who worked on a team that experimented on mice as part of research into enzymes that could have implications for the treatment of cancer, diabetes and muscular dystrophy.

Lab workers told police that Clark was controlling and viewed the lab and its mice as his territory.

Dave Collins, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Yale settles lawsuit over slain grad student

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