Notice to Cease and Desist and Notice of Demand for Retraction and Apology
April 18, 2019
Attorney David Cole, National Legal Director
American Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, 18thFloor
New York, NY 10004
Re: Defamation of Character of Sarah Braasch
Attorney Cole:
First and foremost, this letter serves as notice that the video recording made of me on May 8th, 2018, in my Yale University dormitory, the Hall of Graduate Studies, was made illegally, under Connecticut State Law, and the distribution of this video recording, either the audio or the video therefrom, is illegal under Connecticut State Law, including under CT General Statutes, Chapter 952, Section 53A, Provisions 189 a and b. I intend to pursue prosecution for the illegal distribution of this video recording to the full extent of the law. The distribution of this illegal video recording is a felony under CT State Law, with a statute of limitations of 5 years. I demand that you remove this video wherever it may have been posted by any agent of the American Civil Liberties Union. I demand that you remove any links to this video wherever these links may have been posted by any agent of the American Civil Liberties Union.
This letter serves as a demand that all American Civil Liberties Union agents cease and desist their grossly false and defamatory statements about me, Sarah Braasch, immediately. This letter also serves as a demand that all American Civil Liberties Union agents who have made such grossly false and defamatory statements about me, including, but not limited to, Attorney Carl Takei, immediately and publicly retract those statements and immediately and publicly apologize to me, Sarah Braasch, for having made those grossly false and defamatory statements.
These grossly false and defamatory statements include, but are not limited to, the following:
Attorney Carl Takei’s grossly false and defamatory statements about me in his essay on the ACLU website, Colleges and Universities Have a Racial Profiling Problem. Attorney Takei explicitly states that I reported the woman whom I had encountered in the small common room next to my isolated dorm room to the Yale campus police, because I regarded her as suspicious, because of the color of her skin. Attorney Takei explicitly states that my call to the Yale campus police was unjustified. Attorney Takei explicitly states that I was motivated by racial bias. Attorney Takei explicitly states that I was weaponizing the Yale campus police. This is a straight up, bald faced lie, on the part of the ACLU, meant to destroy my life, my career as a lifelong human and civil rights licensed attorney activist, and ruin my reputation and livelihood, with reckless disregard for the truth, a lie which almost drove me to suicide and incited my murder.
The ACLU has produced a video which grossly defames me as guilty of racial harassment. This video is available on the ACLU’s website and their YouTube Channel, and has been widely viewed and distributed online. The ACLU explicitly states in the video that I reported the woman whom I had encountered in the small common room next to my isolated dorm room to the Yale campus police, because I regarded her as suspicious, because of the color of her skin. The ACLU explicitly states in the video that my call to the Yale campus police was unjustified. The ACLU explicitly states in the video that I was motivated by racial bias. The ACLU explicitly states in the video that I was weaponizing the Yale campus police. This is a straight up, bald faced lie, on the part of the ACLU, meant to destroy my life, my career as a lifelong human and civil rights licensed attorney activist, and ruin my reputation and livelihood, with reckless disregard for the truth, a lie which almost drove me to suicide and incited my murder.
Moreover, this video was made of me, illegally, and widely distributed online, illegally, for the purpose of shaming me for my disability, my mental health disability, including by the ACLU. The fact that I was targeted for my mental health disability is made abundantly clear in the video itself, when my attacker repeatedly calls me psychotic and says that I should be put in a mental institution. She also explicitly states that it was Yale who illegally fed her my personal information, including my mental health history, when she says that Yale knows that I’m crazy and that I should be institutionalized. That the ACLU would participate in the online public shaming of a middle aged, disabled woman, who was made a target, because of her mental health disability, is a renunciation of the ACLU’s campaigns regarding disability rights, as well as privacy, including online privacy. The most defamatory and disgusting thing that the ACLU did in producing this video meant to destroy my life, a video which almost drove me to suicide and incited my murder, was to purposely and purposefully omit those portions of the video that make it clear that my attacker was targeting me for my mental health disability, as well as those portions of the video where my attacker stigmatizes mental illness and makes clear that Yale was illegally feeding her my personal information, in gross violation of my privacy, including my mental health history.
The damage to my life, reputation, livelihood, good name, and career are incalculable. I was forced to flee my dorm room and then campus. I was suicidal for near a year and forced into hiding for my personal safety. I continue to be defamed as a racist. I can’t even begin to count the death threats and threats of violence that I have received. I can’t even begin to count the number of instances of defamation as guilty of racial harassment that I have endured in the national and international news media, as well as on social media, including on the ACLU’s own website, its YouTube Channel, and social media accounts, including those of the ACLU’s many agents and affiliates. My academic and legal and human and civil rights careers are over. I will never be able to secure gainful employment. I will no longer be able to support myself.
I had been a lifelong human and civil rights licensed attorney activist who had devoted her life to undermining oppression in all of its many forms, including racism. No one who has ever known me has ever heard or seen me say or do anything racist ever. Everything that I had wished for my life is no longer possible. Everything that I had strived for my entire life has been destroyed, it has been stripped from me through no fault of my own. And, most ironically, I had been an ardent supporter of the ACLU, a card-carrying member, and a donor.
As a result, I immediately demand the following:
- The ACLU will retract and remove Attorney Takei’s grossly false and defamatory essay, wherever it exists, including all links thereto;
- The ACLU will retract and remove its grossly false and defamatory video about me, wherever it exists, including all links thereto;
- The ACLU will retract and remove all other grossly false and defamatory statements about me, wherever they exist, including all links thereto;
- Attorney Takei will write a new essay, including an apology to me, and he will explain the gross illegality of the prior essay, as well as its grossly defamatory character; this new essay will take the place of the former grossly false and defamatory essay, wherever it exists, including all links thereto;
- The ACLU will produce a new video, including an apology to me, and the ACLU will explain the gross illegality of the prior video, as well as its grossly defamatory character; this new video will take the place of the former grossly false and defamatory video, wherever it exists, including all links thereto;
- The ACLU will produce a statement, including an apology to me, and the ACLU will explain the gross illegality of all other grossly false and defamatory statements about me, as well as their grossly defamatory character; this new statement will take the place of the former grossly false and defamatory statements, wherever they exist, including all links thereto;
- The ACLU will issue a public apology to me for concluding that I acted with any racial animus in connection with this incidence, and stating that all the evidence known to the ACLU suggests otherwise; and
- The ACLU will publicly announce that I have been publicly misrepresented as engaging in discriminatory misconduct. Indeed my work at Yale and beyond evidence that I harbor no racial animus whatsoever. To the contrary, I have dedicated myself to causes of social justice including the cause of eradicating all forms of discrimination.
I expect a response from you in short order.
Sincerely,
Sarah Braasch
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