Notice to Cease and Desist and Notice of Demand for Retraction and Apology
April 27, 2019
Attorney Kimberley D. Harris, Executive Vice President, Comcast Corporation, and General Counsel
NBCUniversal
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112
Re: Defamation of Character of Sarah Braasch
Attorney Harris:
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, or any part thereof, 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 Comcast Corporation. I demand that you remove any links to this video wherever these links may have been posted by any agent of Comcast Corporation.
This letter serves as a demand that all Comcast Corporation agents cease and desist their grossly false and defamatory statements about me, Sarah Braasch, immediately. This letter also serves as a demand that all Comcast Corporation agents who have made such grossly false and defamatory statements about me, including, but not limited to, NBC News, Ron Allen, and Erik Ortiz, 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:
NBC Nightly News has produced a broadcast video, dated May 10th, 2018, which grossly defames me as guilty of racial harassment. This video is available on NBC’s website and their YouTube Channel, and has been widely viewed and distributed online. Ron Allen of NBC Nightly News 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 she looked different than me, because of the color of her skin. Ron Allen of NBC Nightly News explicitly states in the video that my call to the Yale campus police was unjustified, because the woman whom I had encountered, was, according to NBC Nightly News, doing nothing wrong. Ron Allen of NBC Nightly News explicitly states in the video that I was motivated by racial bias. These are straight up, bald faced lies, on the part of Ron Allen and NBC Nightly News, 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.
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 NBC News. 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 NBC News would participate in the network news broadcast and online public shaming of a middle aged, disabled woman, who was made a target, because of her mental health disability, is reprehensible. The most defamatory and disgusting thing that NBC News did in producing this broadcast video meant to destroy my life, a broadcast 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.
Additionally, NBC News Staff Writer Erik Ortiz has written a grossly and egregiously defamatory article titled, “Police shooting near Yale exposes complex racial divide,” which is dated April 24th, 2019, and includes a link to the grossly false and defamatory NBC Nightly News broadcast video with Ron Allen, dated May 10th, 2018. It is difficult to believe that NBC News would do something so vile and defamatory as to link an innocent civil rights activist and older disabled woman, who is the victim of a campaign of harassment and stalking, in part due to her mental health disability, facts which are common knowledge, to a police shooting of a black woman near Yale that sparked protests about racism and police brutality. NBC News Staff Writer Erik Ortiz explicitly states that I am the reason why there is not a better relationship between the Yale Campus Police Department and the black communities surrounding Yale University. This is a straight up, bald faced lie, on the part of NBC News, 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.
These are straight-up, bald-faced lies, on the part of Comcast Corporation, including NBC News, Ron Allen, and Erik Ortiz, 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. Ron Allen lied on NBC Nightly News 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 NBC Nightly News, 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 Erik Ortiz and NBC News. 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 NBC News and by Ron Allen and Erik Ortiz. 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:
- Comcast Corporation will remove the illegal video recording of me and any part thereof, wherever it exists, including all links thereto;
- Comcast Corporation will retract and remove all grossly false and defamatory statements about me, wherever they exist, including all links thereto;
- Comcast Corporation will produce a statement, including an apology to me, and Comcast Corporation 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;
- Comcast Corporation 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 Comcast Corporation 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 NBC Nightly News, and including by Ron Allen; and
- Comcast Corporation 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 NBC Nightly News, and including by Ron Allen. 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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