Last spring, in the immediate aftermath of the Broad Street shooting, the Middletown Police provided the Wes Public Affairs office with a photo of the suspect, Stephen Morgan…and we all noted how it looked nothing like the man in the surveillance camera footage.
After some finger-pointing between Wes and MPD, it was discovered that the initial photo was actually of a Cornell sociology professor by the name of…Stephen Morgan. That Stephen Morgan has now filed suit against the University, claiming he suffered “humiliation, mental anguish and emotional distress” because of the mix-up:
Connecticut State Police and Middletown officers supplied Wesleyan with an image of the Cornell professor, which they culled from a driver’s license database following the May 6 shooting death of Justin-Jinich in a bookstore near the Wesleyan campus. Investigators believed that the gunman was a 29-year-old Massachusetts man, and they obtained a photograph taken of Morgan while he was a student at Harvard University, said James K. Robertson, the professor’s attorney.
Police turned the photograph over to Wesleyan so that university officials could determine if Morgan had a connection with the school. Officers did not give the university permission to publish or release the image, the lawsuit says.
After Wesleyan circulated the photograph, it appeared on various news websites and was broadcast on CNN with a report saying “police believe he may be targeting the school and Jews,” according to the lawsuit.
On May 7, a Wesleyan employee noticed several comments posted on a university message board that said Morgan could not have been the killer because he is not 29 years old and doesn’t resemble the gunman depicted in surveillance photos. University officials met and decided that Morgan was not the suspect involved, the lawsuit says.
Corrina Kerr, associate director of media relations for Wesleyan, said Tuesday that the school does not comment on pending litigation.
Hartford Courant: Cornell Professor Sues Wesleyan Over Release of His Photo in Student’s Killing
34 Comments
Asshole.
… if you ask me, I think he deserves some money. But I think wes. should just seek a reasonable settlement right now and skip all this courtroom nonsense. This man was clearly called an antisemitic killer on the loose for no reason. That’s worth like 10 grand at least, right?
I would be pissed too
The campus was chaos. We were shocked, horrified, and confused. Wes perhaps overstepped boundaries in releasing a photo. But one of our students got brutally murdered and the killer was on the loose; sorry you suffered some inconvenience in having to tell everyone you were not the killer, even when the actual killer is now in custody.
On May 7, a Wesleyan employee noticed several comments posted on a university message board that said Morgan could not have been the killer because he is not 29 years old and doesn’t resemble the gunman depicted in surveillance photos.
What “university message board” ???
Wesleying? ACB? Internal message board?
What a jerk. Like he doesn’t understand what happens amidst an emergency. Has he ever stopped to think about how he would have reacted if this were happening at Cornell? Feel free to share your thoughts with him:
EMAIL: slm45@cornell.edu
PHONE: 607/255-0706
@Sheek (who may or may not actually be you) – I’m betting it was the ACB. It’s not like we have any other “message boards,” and a lot more faculty/staff read it than you would think…
it had to be the acb. only after it was posted on the acb, by yours truly, did it filter up to the administration
@ #8:
A lot of us were posting on the ACB that it obviously couldn’t be the same guy
the point is, the university acted within hours to correct the mistake. It’s the nature of the event and the fact that it played out on the internet that makes it unique. Hopefullly, this can be settled out of court.
“within hours?” Umm, 17, for a photo that they didn’t have permission to post in the first place, and that students figured out was of the wrong person within hours.
Has the Wesleyan admin publicly apologized to Dr. Morgan? Seems like they’ve mostly spent their time blustering, finger-pointing, and denying responsibility. (Before the lawsuit — now they conveniently can’t comment.) If Wesleyan is trying to teach us to be accountable for our mistakes, they sure aren’t setting a very good example.
I think this lawsuit damages his reputation more than a simple mistake by the university.
why isn’t he suing the MPD or state police who released the wrong photo? maybe because they don’t have the money to settle a suit.
@13 lately, we don’t have the money either though
i understand that he’s pissed, but this is kind of ridiculous.
honestly, I sort of think he has a right to sue. obviously the campus was in chaos and the school was desperate to give us information, but I think it’s really hard for any of us to imagine what that would be like to see your name and photo published all over news sites online saying that you are responsible for one of the most atrocious crimes possible. It would be very traumatizing, and I don’t think its something that could easily be solved just by saying to family and friends, “hey, wasn’t me!”
He was on America’s Most Wanted. That isn’t acceptable
So a public apology is certainly warranted, but suing for money just comes across as greedy, exploitative, and despicable.
#15: On the contrary, I imagine the nature of the error—namely, that he shares a name with the killer—would be patently obvious to his family and friends. How could it *not* be? In a state of emergency, identifying and arresting the suspect to ensure students’ safety seems so much more important than worrying about inconveniencing some Cornell professor.
I think it’s worth pointing out that in a May 8, 2009 article in the Courant, Professor Morgan said about the photo mix-up, “I think we should forgive people when they make mistakes.” http://bit.ly/8FhuNn
Regardless of what you think is “morally” right for him to do he completely has a legal right to sue, and he has a legitimate chance to win the suit/receive a large settlement. Think about the fact that the ACB realized the mistake before University officials…
Dear Zach, Beau, and others:
Thank you for your interest in my lawsuit against Wesleyan. I write to provide some information that you do not know but which will be featured prominently in the courtroom. I do not expect to convince you to change your opinions of my character, but I would like you to understand my position on the matter.
The facts of the case:
I was never a suspect of the police, nor even a person of interest. I have no criminal record. I have no connection to Wesleyan whatsoever. I have never been the subject of any complaint of any form at any institution I have attended or served. I have never uttered an anti-Semitic statement. Until this incident, I held Wesleyan in high regard.
What Wesleyan did:
The commanding officer of the Connecticut State Police who was on the scene that day has written to me in email which will be shared in court: “The photo and e-mail in question were provided to Mr. Tanaka, Wesleyan’s Special Assistant to the President for University Relations, during the early stages of this homicide investigation at the direct request of Wesleyan’s Director of Security. The photograph was provided to the President’s Office for the express purpose of assisting in the efforts to determine whether the person in the photograph was associated with the school in any way. No authorization was provided for any further disclosure of the photograph, and it was not disclosed to any non-law enforcement personnel or entity by the Connecticut State Police.” The analogous officer at the Middletown Police Department has said essentially the same thing in email.
All media outlets who used the photo attributed it to Wesleyan. All verify that the police did not distribute the photo. Media who chose not to use my photo, such as the Hartford Courant, did not do so because they could not confirm from the police or other sources that the person in my photo was their suspect (and they did not think I looked like the person in the surveillance photo either).
The morning after the evening that Wesleyan released my photo, and after they became aware of all of the speculation that it was a photo of me, the Wesleyan administration chose not to take my photo down. It was at that point that my photo was distributed nationally. (Indeed, it appears that at the same time they also chose not to release the NYU photo of the real suspect that the Hartford Courant was using. They didn’t think it was helpful, and released it several hours after they could have.)
Wesleyan only took my photo off of the Wesleyan website at about 2:45 that day, 17 hours after it was posted, and only after the Cornell University press office demanded that they do so. That was nearly 3 hours after the Middletown Police Department told them the picture was not of their suspect. It was also the crucial period when my picture was put out by CNN, CBS, NBC, and AP.
The harm I suffered:
People who have posted to this thread have an insufficient appreciation for how harmful this was to me and my family. That is understandable, as I would have never predicted it either. Indeed, when I talked to the Hartford Courant while this was unfolding, I did not yet have an appreciation of all of the fallout that would come.
When the five-minute CNN video is played in court, I expect you will have more sympathy with the emotional distress that this caused for me and my family. When you have your own 2 year-old and 4 year-old, you will understand what it was like for a few weeks, wondering who was driving into my driveway unannounced. Or wondering what I should do about email asking if I was a “talibanman.” When you have a full-time job, you will understand how harmful it is to lose weeks of work to something like this, trying (again without any help from Wesleyan) to get my image removed from countless websites.
And, as for damage to reputation, the limits of this are even hard to know. The standard reaction from acquaintances and others who do not know me well is ‘Well, obviously we now know that you did not commit the murder, as they have got the other Stephen Morgan in custody. But, there are lots of Stephen Morgans out there. Why did you get mixed up in this? Do you have a criminal record, or did you once say something that got you on a list of some form?’ I then have to explain that I do not have a criminal record and have never said anything anti-semitic, and so on. This is an inconvenience, but I can undo the damage with people who talk to me. The problem is that not everyone who makes that inference contacts me and gives me an opportunity to defend myself. Since my picture is still out there on the web in a few places as the suspect of the police, and since some websites simply are unresponsive to my requests to take it down, someone in the future can make that inference. Having someone wonder whether you may have a hidden past that made you the suspect of the police in a hate crime is not helpful to one’s reputation.
Wesleyan’s response since the incident:
You are absolutely correct that I did say to the Hartford Courant while the real suspect was still on the loose that “I think we should forgive people when they make mistakes.” I do believe that, but I have no forgiveness to offer for the Wesleyan administration given how they have handled this. This is in contrast to both law enforcement and some members the media who have been very helpful in correcting the record.
What did Wesleyan do? I do not know of a single media outlet that they contacted, asking that my photo be removed. I was left to do that, and fortunately the Middletown Police Department and Cornell University helped me a great deal in those efforts.
Instead, someone from the Wesleyan administration called to express their regret that this happened to me. At first, I interpreted that as an apology, but as I talked with him it became clear that he would not accept any responsibility and simply wanted to express the regret of his insitution. It seemed that he was reading from a script written by a lawyer.
As a result, I telephoned David Winakor, Wesleyan’s legal counsel. I asked him for an explanation of what had happened. He blamed the police, and so I asked him for a written explanation of what happened. He never provided one, only a scattered timeline that was self-serving and even left out crucial events that he had admitted to me on the phone earlier. As a result, I contacted the police, and after phone calls, got the email summarized above. I then shared with Winakor what the police had told me, and I asked him on the phone on June 3rd to provide a public apology on behalf of the university admitting that it was their mistake, which I could then share with websites, etc., who were still using my picture. He refused to do so, saying that they would not be providing a written “mea culpa” because Wesleyan’s position was that they “did nothing wrong.” It was at that point that I told him that I would have no choice but to hire a lawyer in an attempt to compel Wesleyan to write the letter and, failing that, bring a lawsuit against the university. He thanked me for my time and ended the phone call. I have not talked with anyone from Wesleyan since that day. That is a full five months since I asked for a written apology accepting responsibility. With nothing from them, I hired an excellent Connecticut attorney and filed a lawsuit.
My character:
I have never filed a lawsuit before, nor even hired a lawyer for anything other than the purchase of a house. If I was motivated to exploit this situation for personal gain, I suppose I would have already filed a lawsuit against CNN and NBC, etc., since they did not perform any due diligence and did not check with the police to confirm that the picture was indeed of the Stephen Morgan who was their suspect. After all, some media outlets did do this, displaying appropriate levels of journalistic excellence. Instead, I have brought a lawsuit against Wesleyan because, in my view, they made the crucial decisions that caused the harm and because they have been unwilling to help set the record straight, which has compounded all of the original harm. I have no qualms whatsoever, and no regrets that I have filed the lawsuit. No amount of questioning of my character will dissuade me from going forward with this.
Use of any jury award:
I see that someone has posted my email address to this thread. I hope you will use it for a purpose other than what was suggested in that person’s mean-spirited post. I welcome suggestions for how to use any money from a jury award which is left over after expenses are paid. Thanks to Cornell, my family is financially secure, and I don’t need the money from this. I can assure you that I would far prefer to have never been brought into this situation.
Regards,
Steve Morgan
Ithaca, NY
Even before reading Dr. Morgan’s response above, I was supportive of his suit. Yes, the university was dealing with a lot at that moment, but that isn’t reason to release photographs that they weren’t authorized to. Reading that our school never even offered an apology nor worked to help remove the circulating pictures that THEY provided WITHOUT authorization.
I feel like they were obligated to help with the damage that they caused and didn’t. Hence this is justified.
It’s pretty fucked up that the school would do something so irresponsible and not even put out a public apology for it.
Steve,
Great response, A few questions – have you consulted with your Connecticut attorney before making statements and naming individuals on a public website?
Is he/she and your family okay with your offer
to use any jury award for whatever purpose some miscellaneous Wesleyan student suggests?
You may want to reconsider that a future point.
Wesleyan budget gap just got a little bigger. thanks Dr. Morgan, now Wesleyan students will have to suffer for something they didn’t do. the Wesleyan administration is to blame, but the Wesleyan students will suffer from any financial damage your lawsuit does. remember that universities are suffering big time from their endowment spirals…
Steve,
I’m sorry.
I saw what appeared to be a change of opinion from the May 8 Courant report to the filing of your suit, and meant to add that to the discussion here.
I can see how my post came off as negative (especially in the context of other comments on this post), and I did not intend for it to be. I was operating under the assumption that MPD released the photo (or authorized its release), and that the harm caused by your photo being associated with the other Stephen Morgan would diminish over time. I failed to consider your perspective, and for that I’m sorry.
As for suggestions about how to use the jury award, I think you should pay your expenses, do something nice for you and your family, and consider donating what’s left to the Johanna Justin-Jinich scholarship fund. In that order.
Steve, for the following reasons, you don’t want this to go to a jury:
1) According to your own timeline of events, it took MPD until 12:00 the following afternoon to definitively state that the person pictured on your drivers license “was not a suspect” and,
2) that by that time, the damage had already been done.
In other words, Wesleyan’s culpability rests on the idea that it should have interpreted MPD’s actions in a way that would have been completely contrary to common sense: that a police department, in the middle of a murder investigation — where the suspect is still at-large, would hand a photo over to Wesleyan with the understanding that Wesleyan would shove it in a drawer someplace and not circulate it. Good luck with that.
This is not to say, that I am unsympathetic to your position. Who wouldn’t be? But, I’m really not sure what would have qualified as a suitable apology under your rather stringent requirements. You castigate the Wesleyan representative who contacted you because he merely wanted “to express the regret of his institution.” Well, there you are: one person’s apology is another person’s defensive posture. Given the turn of subsequent events, can you blame them?
A lot of people here seem to be overlooking the fact that if Wesleyan had appropriately dealt with the situation in the first place then Prof. Morgan would have no reason to file a law suit. So who is responsible for the money Wesleyan loses? Wesleyan.
Attacking the Middletown Police Department will do nothing but bring further shame upon Wesleyan.
The reference of johnwesley @26 in his point (1) is to an 11:53am email from the Middletown Police Department to Wesleyan and media outlets. It contained the statement: “There is a photograph that is being circulated and aired of a suspect with glasses and a blue background. This photograph was not released by this agency and is NOT our suspect.”
Good luck trying to convince a jury that the Middletown Police Department thought the photo of Stephen L. Morgan was a photo of their suspect (at any point and/or right up until 11:53am on that day). Stephen P. Morgan’s own father had identified him from the surveillance photo at 4:15am that morning. Is a jury supposed to believe that Stephen P. Morgan’s father was also shown the photo of Stephen L. Morgan and then that he also identified his son as the person in the photo of Stephen L. Morgan? Is a jury supposed to believe that Connecticut law enforcement releases photos of its suspects only indirectly through those associated with the victim? That certainly isn’t how they handled the other photos on that day, such as the security camera screen grab and the NYU id photo (both of which were directly and promptly released). A jury is very unlikely to believe that MPD decided to covertly release the photo of Stephen L. Morgan by passing it off to Wesleyan and then hoping that Wesleyan would release it. A jury will be much more likely to believe that Wesleyan acted recklessly and negligently in releasing a photo that was never of a suspect.
And, in general, good luck trying to blame this all on the Middletown Police Department to a Connecticut jury. MPD may have been a bit late in telling Wesleyan to take the photo of Stephen L. Morgan off the Wesleyan website, but that was because they were busy investigating a crime and tracking a gunman at large in the community rather than policing Wesleyan’s reckless behavior.
Discovery and depositions will clarify the “who, when, and why” of all of this. Perhaps some new revelation about the behavior of law enforcement will be revealed that will save Wesleyan’s bacon. It is much more likely that Wesleyan will find itself deeper in the hole it has dug for itself already, and the MPD will be entirely vindicated.
No one’s “blaming” MPD for anything. They were doing their jobs. And, not for nothing, I believe they’re protected by sovereign immunity.
wesleyan is going to go with that flimsy defense, which no jury will accept. then, it is going to maintain that it is all the consequence of the action of the mpd, but that they are not actually blaming the mpd for the harm. and they are going to telegraph all of this brilliant strategy on a student website before the trial even begins, under the thin cover of ‘johnwesley’.
for a university with a half-billion dollar endowment, you’d think wes would have an administration with better sense than this. no wonder they made such a stupid mistake in the first place.
are there no trustees out there to take control of this insanity and protect wes from further damage to its already declining image? the ap story on this seems to have been picked up by more than 230 newspapers and websites already. how is that going to help with fundraising and student applications, which are heavily dependent on confidence in the current administration? weleyan should clean house first and then offer a settlement and hope it is accepted.
I doubt this is the first time in US jurisprudence that an incorrect suspect photo had been released then redacted.
Shit happens, move on.
I second everything said in Beau’s comment #25.
Family & Self, and then donate the rest to the scholarship fund.
It would get you the justice you seek without hurting the students.
That is if this goes through.
@post#30. Now that we’ve established who you are, how much is your client asking for?
Steve Morgan’s CV:
Phi Beta Kappa Harvard
Rhodes Scholar
Harvard PHD.
Tenured Prof. at Cornell
Poor disadvantaged guy’s life must have been ruined by that photo.