The former dean of the University of California, Berkeley law school has filed a lawsuit accusing school officials of singling him out because of his race for a second investigation of sexual harassment allegations.
Sujit Choudhry says in a federal discrimination lawsuit filed Thursday in San Francisco that the University of California has treated white faculty members and administrators found to have committed sexual misconduct more leniently while threatening him with a campus ban and loss of tenure.
His lawsuit names the University of California regents and Janet Napolitano, the school’s president, and seeks unspecified damages.
A message seeking comment from the University of California was not immediately returned.
Choudhry resigned as dean in March amid faculty outrage that he had been allowed to remain in the position after a campus investigation substantiated sexual harassment allegations from his executive assistant.
Most recently, outrage flared again after he returned to campus this month to work.
The woman at the center of his case, his former executive assistant Tyann Sorrell, said at the time that his presence could “silence victims from coming forward”.
As described in a university report and Sorrell’s lawsuit, she said Choudhry treated her like his personal “maid” and began hugging and kissing her without permission. According to her claim, he eventually touched her on a “near daily basis” and allegedly rubbed and caressed her arms and shoulders while she typed.
Choudhry admitted touching her – but disputed some specifics of her allegations – and the university concluded that he had violated sexual harassment policies. His salary was reduced by 10% to $373,500 for one year as punishment. After Sorrell, 41, filed a lawsuit, the case went public and sparked intense backlash, with critics saying the university had failed a victim and given an offensively light sanction to a powerful administrator.
Choudhry subsequently stepped down as dean but remained on the faculty, and Napolitano in March requested that Choudhry be barred from returning to campus for the rest of the semester.
In his lawsuit, Choudhry said the University of California opened a second investigation of him for the same conduct after Sorrell filed the lawsuit and after reports it had mishandled cases of serious sexual misconduct.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a court order stopping the second disciplinary process.
