Notice to Cease and Desist and Notice of Demand for Retraction and Apology
April 18, 2019
Attorney Louise Sams, Executive Vice President and General Counsel
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
One CNN Center
Atlanta, GA 30303
Re: Defamation of Character of Sarah Braasch
Attorney Sams:
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 Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. I demand that you remove any links to this video wherever these links may have been posted by any agent of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
This letter serves as a demand that all Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. agents cease and desist their grossly false and defamatory statements about me, Sarah Braasch, immediately. This letter also serves as a demand that all Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. agents who have made such grossly false and defamatory statements about me, including, but not limited to, CNN and Don Lemon, 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:
Don Lemon concocted a grotesque fairy tale out of whole cloth on CNN about what had happened during the Living or Napping While Black Hate Crime Hoax at Yale this past spring, and about what I had done and about what my motivations were, and about who I am.
Don Lemon explicitly stated on CNN that what I did was harassment.
Don Lemon strongly implied on CNN that I was trolling the halls of my Yale dorm at 2 am for random sleeping black people to call the police on.
Don Lemon explicitly stated on CNN that I did this for one reason and for one reason only – out of racial animus, because of the color of my attackers’ skin.
Don Lemon strongly implied on CNN that I had just come across a random sleeping black person in the huge main common room of my dorm on the ground floor and then immediately called the police for no reason other than I’m a racist, and I wanted to evict a black person from my white space.
Don Lemon explicitly stated on CNN that I didn’t even try to speak with the woman whom I had encountered before I called the police.
Don Lemon explicitly stated on CNN that I had no good reason to call the police.
Don Lemon explicitly stated on CNN that I did the same thing back in February, 2018, during the February 24thincident.
When asked why I did what I did he said:
“We all know why. We all know why.”
These are straight-up, bald-faced lies, on the part of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., including CNN and Don Lemon, 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, lies which almost drove me to suicide and incited my murder. Don Lemon lied on CNN about me. He didn’t even try to find out the truth of what happened. He did not meet the bare minimum requirement with respect to his ethical and journalistic obligations to report the truth before he endangered and destroyed my life by telling lies about me on CNN, broadcast to the entire world.
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, including this week, by CNN. 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 CNN and by Don Lemon. 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.
As a result, I immediately demand the following:
- Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. will remove the illegal video recording of me and any part thereof, wherever it exists, including all links thereto;
- Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. will retract and remove all grossly false and defamatory statements about me, wherever they exist, including all links thereto;
- Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. will produce a statement, including an apology to me, and Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. will explain the gross illegality of all other grossly false and defamatory statements about me, as well as their grossly false and defamatory character; this new statement will take the place of the former grossly false and defamatory statements, wherever they exist, including all links thereto;
- Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. will issue a public apology to me for concluding that I acted with any racial animus or bias in connection with this incident, and stating that all the evidence known to Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. suggests otherwise, and this public apology will be read on air on any broadcast that had previously aired grossly false and defamatory statements about me, including on CNN, and including by Don Lemon; and
- Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. will publicly announce that I have been publicly misrepresented as engaging in discriminatory misconduct, and this public announcement will be read on air on any broadcast that had previously aired grossly false and defamatory statements about me, including on CNN, and including by Don Lemon. 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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