Former Student Accused Of Rape Can Sue His Accuser For Defamation, Court Rules

 A former Yale student who was acquitted of rape in 2018, and later kicked out of the college, can sue his accuser for defamation over statements the accuser made during a school hearing, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in June, according to the New York Post.

Saifullah Khan sued Yale in 2019 for $110 million, and has been attempting to bring his accuser into the lawsuit, according to the Post. The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled ruled that he can sue the accuser, and that she shouldn’t received “qualified immunity,” which prevents people from being sued over statements in judicial cases, from her testimony that Khan raped her in 2015. 

The court ruled that since the proceeding did not allow him to cross-examine the accuser, it did not qualify as a “quasi-judicial” case, according to the Post.

STANFORD, – MARCH 12: Students and visitors walk on the Stanford University campus on March 12, 2019 in Stanford, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Norman Pattis, Khan’s lawyer, has argued that his client didn’t get a fair hearing, according to the Post. His lawyers at the criminal trial argued the sexual encounter was consensual, while the accuser claimed that he had taken advantage of her when she was drunk.

Khan was suspended from classes amid the allegations and then returned to school after his 2018 acquittal, according to the Post. He was suspended again after a second allegation occurred in October 2018, and he was expelled in 2019 after the University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct found him guilty of being responsible for sexual assault in the 2015 case, according to Yale Daily News.