CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) – A former Harvard graduate student acquitted by a trial jury on charges of sexual assault, says the university is resisting readmitting him.
Giorgi Zedginidze, 36, of the Republic of Georgia, was a student at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education when he was charged with six counts of sexual assault and battery involving an incident in his dormitory on Jan. 31, 2002.
He withdrew voluntarily from the school after the charges were filed, after Harvard asked him to choose between that and expulsion.
A Middlesex Superior Court jury acquitted him at trial earlier this year. But Harvard has refused to reinstate him and has discouraged him from scheduling a tribunal to consider readmission, the Boston Sunday Globe reported. Even if a hearing does happen, he will have no right to a lawyer, face his accuser or cross-examine his witnesses.
“It has been a nightmare,” Zedginidze said. “They think I am guilty no matter what.”
In a letter dated Oct. 9, Nancy Nienhuis, director of student affairs, advised Zedginidze to “consider very carefully” whether he wanted to initiate a review for readmission, the Globe reported.
If the Harvard tribunal found Zedginidze guilty, his currently clean academic record “would bear the permanent mark ‘expelled.’ It is therefore critical that you carefully consider whether you want to put your current status in question by formally requesting to be reinstated,” Nienhuis wrote in the letter.
She also wrote that she understood Zedginidze had been acquitted of rape. Zedginidze had been charged and acquitted of sexual assault, not rape.
Nienhuis referred all questions to Christine Sanni, spokeswoman for Harvard’s education school.
“Having been acquitted of criminal charges does not automatically entitle a student to return to the school,” Sanni said, declining comment on any specific case.
Since the verdict, the Middlesex District Attorney’s office has declined to comment on the case.
“If this were a public university, he’d have every right to sue them for violating his due process rights,” said criminal defense lawyer Harvey Silvergate, who has written a book on justice at private universities.
After the charges were filed, and Zedginidze withdrew from Harvard, he lost his student visa, a full scholarship from the U.S. State Department and a stipend. He stayed on as an illegal immigrant, awaiting trial.
Now back in his native country, he says he will return when Harvard schedules a hearing date.
“I did nothing wrong,” he said. “It’s simply a matter of honor.”
AP-ES-12-28-03 0318EST
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