Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label federal court. Show all posts
Showing posts with label federal court. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Three women sue Yale, saying off-campus fraternities discriminate, enable abuse

February 12, 2019  23H:04  GMT/ZULU
Three women sued Yale University and nine fraternities on Tuesday, saying the off-campus clubs harbored a culture of sexual discrimination and assault, and asking the court to order the all-male social organizations to admit women.
All three undergraduate students of the Ivy League college said were groped at parties held at fraternity houses off campus during their first semesters at the school, according to the complaint filed in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut.
SPONSORED
ADVERTISING
Ry Walker, a 20-year-old college junior from New York, said that someone had pulled up her skirt and grabbed her crotch at a dark and crowded party in 2016, but that she did not report the incident as she had not seen who had groped her. She said she later realized many Yale women had had similar experiences.
The women said the fraternities discriminated against them by rejecting them on the basis of gender, a decision that they said potentially denied them access to networking opportunities that could help their later careers.
Yale spokesman Thomas Conroy declined to comment on the lawsuit.
He forwarded a January message sent to students by the school’s dean about a university investigation that found evidence of sexual misconduct at one of the nine fraternities targeted in the women’s lawsuit.
“I condemn the culture described in these accounts; it runs counter to our community’s values of making everyone feel welcome, respected, and safe,” Dean Marvin Chun said in the message. “I also offer some plain advice about events like these: don’t go to them.”

ANALYSIS AND BREAKING: El Chapo trial: Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán found guilty


Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán is paraded before the media after his arrestImage copyrightREUTERS
Image captionGuzmán was extradited to the US in 2017
by Biodun Iginla, BBC News Analyst, New York
Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán has been found guilty on all 10 counts at his drug trafficking trial at a federal court in New York.
Guzmán, 61, has yet to be sentenced but the verdict could mean life in jail.
The Mexican was accused of being behind the all-powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, which prosecutors say was the biggest supplier of drugs to the US.
He was arrested in January 2016 after escaping from a Mexican prison through a tunnel five months earlier.
Tuesday's unanimous verdict by a jury in Brooklyn followed an 11-week trial.
He was accused of employing hitmen to carry out "hundreds" of murders, assaults, kidnappings and acts of torture on rivals.
Key associates, including one former lieutenant, testified against Guzmán.

Who is El Chapo?

"El Chapo" (or "Shorty") - once one of the world's richest men - ran the cartel in northern Mexico.
Over time, it became one of the biggest traffickers of drugs to the US and, in 2009, Guzmán entered Forbes' list of the world's richest men at number 701, with an estimated worth of $1bn.
ADVERTISEMENT
He was accused of having helped export hundreds of tonnes of cocaine into the US, and was also accused of conspiring to manufacture and distribute heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana - and ordering killings.

What did the court hear?

The trial provided shocking revelations about the Mexican drug lord's life.
Court papers accused him of having girls as young as 13 drugged before raping them.
Guzmán "called the youngest of the girls his 'vitamins' because he believed that sexual activity with young girls gave him 'life'", former associate Colombian drug trafficker Alex Cifuentes is quoted as saying.
During the trial Cifuentes also alleged that Guzmán gave a $100m (£77m) bribe to former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who is said to have contacted him after taking office in 2012 and asked for $250m in return for ending a manhunt for him. Mr Pena Nieto has not publicly commented.
Sketch of Alex Cifuentes (L) and GuzmánImage copyrightREUTERS
Image captionFormer associate Cifuentes (L) alleged that Guzmán (R) bribed Mexico's then president
Another witness described seeing Guzmán murder at least three men.
Former bodyguard Isaias Valdez Rios said Guzmán beat two people who had joined a rival cartel until they were "completely like rag dolls". He then shot them in the head and ordered their bodies be thrown on a fire.
In another incident, he had a member of the rival Arellano Felix cartel burned and imprisoned before taking him to a graveyard, shooting him and having him buried alive.
Guzmán is also alleged to have had his own cousin killed for lying about being out of town, and ordered a hit on the brother of another cartel leader because he did not shake his hand.
When asked by a former cartel lieutenant why he killed people, he is alleged to have said: "Either your mom's going to cry or their mom's going to cry."
Guzmán's wife Emma Coronel attended the trial in New YorkImage copyrightEPA
Image captionGuzmán's wife Emma Coronel attended the trial
The court heard details of his 2015 escape from Mexico's maximum-security Altiplano prison. His sons bought a property near the prison and a GPS watch smuggled into the prison gave diggers his exact location.
At one point Guzmán complained that he could hear the digging from his cell. He escaped by riding a specially adapted small motorcycle through the tunnel.
He also used spy software on his phone to spy on his wife and mistresses, which allowed the FBI to present his text messages in court.
In one set of texts, he recounted to his wife how he had fled a villa during a raid by US and Mexican officials, before asking her to bring him new clothes, shoes and black moustache dye.

Why was this trial significant?

Guzmán is the highest profile Mexican drug cartel boss so far to stand trial in the US.
The drug war in Mexico - pitting the Mexican and US authorities against cartels smuggling drugs into the US and the cartels against each other - has killed about 100,000 people over more than a decade.
Media captionA former DEA agent describes capturing Guzmán in 2014 - he later escaped
Guzmán achieved notoriety for twice escaping custody in Mexico as well as avoiding arrest on numerous other occasions.
Among some in his home state, he had the status of a folk hero, a popular subject of "narcocorridos" - musical tributes to drugs barons.
In 2016, he gave an interview to Hollywood actor Sean Penn in a Mexican jungle following his escape the previous year and boasted that he was the world's leading supplier of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana.
He was later recaptured in the north-western town of Los Mochis. During the raid he fled through a drain but was later caught by troops in a shootout.
The Brooklyn Bridge was closed each time Guzmán was driven across itImage copyrightREUTERS
Image captionNew York's Brooklyn Bridge was closed each time the motorcade containing Guzmán drove across it
The US indictment against him was a consolidation of charges from six federal jurisdictions across the country, including New York, Chicago and Miami.
Prosecutors pooled together evidence acquired over more than a decade, including from international partners such as Mexico and Colombia, to build their sweeping case.
The trial jurors were anonymous and were escorted to and from the courthouse in Brooklyn by armed marshals after prosecutors argued that Guzmán had a history of intimidating witnesses and even ordering their murders.