Taking All These White People Down With You Is One Way To Handle A Sexual Harassment Charge

We have done a fair amount of reporting on Sujit Choudhry, the former dean of U.C. Berkeley Law School who resigned amid allegations that he sexually harassed his executive assistant.

Choudhry has not gone down quietly. He has filed a grievance against the University. Now, he’s filed a federal lawsuit.

Choudhry claims Berkeley is trying to punish him twice for the same conduct. After his executive assistant made complaints, Berkeley conducted an investigation, and there was a settlement where Choudhry was allowed to continue teaching. But, Choudhry alleges, after the press and the students got a hold of the allegations, Berkeley opened a second investigation into his conduct — and tried to throw him out of academia. It’s this second investigation that is the crux of Choudhry’s complaint, which you can read here.

What’s really interesting is that Choudhry claims an Equal Protection violation. He says that Berkeley has brushed aside complaints of sexual harassment against white faculty members. He says that Berkeley is turning up the heat on him because of his Indian heritage.

And yes, Choudhry has some specific examples in mind, which his complaint is happy to share:

152. In 2014, President [Janet] Napolitano’s office retained an attorney to investigate allegations of sexual harassment against UC Berkeley’s Vice Chancellor for Research and Professor of Chemistry Graham Fleming. Fleming was accused of sexual misconduct with one or more subordinate employees in his office.

153. The investigator in the Fleming matter found that “Fleming said he was in love with and wanted to sleep with [redacted].” In an e-mail, Fleming wrote to “[redacted] that he did not want her to lose too much weight so that he would have something to hold onto.” Fleming admitted telling “[redacted] to turn around so he could molest [redacted] . . . .” The investigator also found it “more likely than not that Fleming grabbed [redacted’s] breasts . . . .” The investigator’s report also reflects that “[redacted] allege[d] that Fleming told her . . . about . . . [a] sexual encounter he had with a female graduate student,” involving “the student giving him oral sex in a hotel room or an office.” The report also documents that “[Fleming] admitted that he approached her from behind and touched her hair to move it out of the way so that he could kiss her neck.” The report also reflects that “Fleming admitted . . . an incident . . . wherein he offered to and did massage [redacted’s] feet with lotion and then laid down next to her on a hotel room bed fully clothed . . . . During the same trip, [redacted] stated that Fleming told her he wanted to sleep with her.” Based on the investigation, the investigator concluded that “[redacted] more likely than not felt Fleming’s erection on one occasion” when he hugged her.

That sound you hear is Choudhry taking a flamethrower to bridges in and around Boalt Hall.

158. Geoffrey Marcy is a retired Professor of Astronomy.

159. In 2015, OPHD performed an investigation of allegations that Professor Marcy had engaged in sexual harassment and misconduct with students.

160. OPHD found that Professor Marcy kissed a student on the forehead and cheek. It found that he had discussed his sex life with another student, invited her to attend a tennis match, and squeezed her neck after driving her home. It also found credible another Complainant’s description that Professor Marcy, at a conference in Washington, D.C., touched an undergraduate’s thigh, bought the undergraduate drinks, and took her back to her hotel room. Professor Marcy contended that he was assisting an intoxicated student, whom he knew, but OPHD noted that it was strange that he did not try to find the student’s friends, and questioned Professor Marcy’s motive for escorting her all the way to her bed. OPHD also found that it was more likely than not that Professor Marcy put his hand up the skirt of a student at another University, where Professor Marcy gave a talk, and that, when he did so, Professor Marcy grabbed the student’s private areas.

Choudhry claims that both of these cases, involving white professors, were handled discreetly by Berkeley.

168. Defendants’ uniquely harsh and unprecedented treatment of Professor Choudhry is motivated by discrimination based on his race, color, and national origin.

I’m not a huge fan of the “but white people do it” defense, especially when it comes to sexual harassment. If all your white friends jumped off the Empire State Building and don’t die, it doesn’t mean your black-ass should do it.

I don’t know if racism is at play here. What seems most likely to me is that universities, including law schools and other professional schools, didn’t take sexual harassment as seriously in the past. Now they take it more seriously, and Choudhry got caught in the new normal.

But two things can be true at the same time. Berkeley could have not acted decisively enough on previous allegations of sexual harassment, and that soft-peddling could have been racially motivated. I don’t think that would mean Berkeley should punish Choudhry less, I think it means Berkeley should punish white professors more. But you can understand why Choudhry might have a different perspective here.

But whether it’s hugging, kissing, lotion-ing, or straight-up boning… everybody should be capable of keeping their hands to themselves. If you don’t, allegedly, you’re not going to get a lot of sympathy if the wheel of punishment falls more harshly on your head.

Ex-Law Dean Sues Berkeley for Racial Bias in Handling of Harassment Claims [Law.com]

Earlier: After Sexual Harassment Allegations, Former Berkeley Law Dean Choudhry Fights Back
Reaction To Berkeley Law’s Sexual Harassment Scandal Is Swift And Harsh

---

Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He’s not even going to make a joke here because he’s not trying to get sued.