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Lawyer Says Rutgers Coach C. Vivian Stringer Wanted Suit Dropped Against Don Imus
A lawyer who represented a
Junior Kia Vaughn dropped her slander and defamation suit in September against Imus, who called
But in a Sept. 4 e-mail and an Aug. 17 letter sent to school officials before the suit was dropped, Vaughn's attorney, Richard B. Ancowitz, said the head coach, C. Vivian Stringer, and others put pressure on his client and other players not to seek legal action against Imus.
Vaughn told The Associated Press no one pressured her to drop the suit.
Vaughn filed the lawsuit against Imus and CBS in August, claiming the radio personality's sexist and racist comments about the team damaged her reputation.
In his correspondence, obtained by the AP from
"It seems quite clear that Coach Stringer and her surrogates continue to discourage both my client and my client's teammates from taking action to protect and/or enforce their legal rights," Ancowitz wrote in a Sept. 4 e-mail to the university's vice president and general counsel, Jonathan Alger.
In an Aug. 17 letter, Ancowitz described a telephone conversation between himself, Stringer, Vaughn and Vaughn's mother.
"She [Stringer] began by telling us and specifically Kia that the bringing of Ms. Vaughn's action was wrong and saying that she was angry," he wrote. The coach "accusingly told Kia it would have a negative effect on the coming basketball season."
The 20-year-old Vaughn disagreed, saying Stringer didn't tell her pursuing a lawsuit was wrong.
Although Ancowitz said he never intended for his correspondence to be made public, he stood by his comments Thursday.
He declined to elaborate, citing his respect for Vaughn's privacy and her desire for "peace and harmony."
Stringer did not respond to numerous requests for comment. Stacey Brann,
Stringer's pastor, Rev. DeForest Soaries, said he attended a September meeting at the university with players, parents and Ancowitz, and that at no point did he or Stringer advise them to drop the lawsuit. That meeting was held before Vaughn dropped her suit.
Soaries said he'd talked with some of the players -- although not Vaughn -- and that they had been under the impression Imus would settle the suit quickly. He told them that might not be the case.
Mulcahy, in two separate statements, said players were free to decide whether they wanted to sue Imus.
Vaughn said she did not know of Ancowitz's correspondence to the school until Wednesday and did not know how he came to his conclusions. Vaughn described Ancowitz as "straightforward" and said he was clear about the risks of suing Imus.
In his Sept. 4 e-mail, Ancowitz said there were two, possibly three, students whose parents "have told me point blank that they want to pursue legal action but feel intimidated against doing so by Coach Stringer."
In his e-mail, Ancowitz also claimed several
Brann denied that she or any team official made such a statement.
The team and Stringer earned widespread praise for their poise dealing with the comments of Imus, who became the target of protests and eventually was fired.
Soaries said he advised players that the statute of limitations on filing a lawsuit wouldn't run out until a year from Imus' April comments and that they might want to focus their attentions on winning a championship.
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