James Bui, uncle of former pharmacology student Annie Le GRD ’13, told the News in an email early Monday morning that he does not support the wrongful death lawsuit between Le’s estate and Yale, and that the suit is only supported by one member of Le’s family.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Le’s estate, and lawyer for the plaintiff Joseph Tacopina told the News last week that he is not representing any individual family members. Bui, however, insisted that Vivian Le, Annie’s mother, is the only family supporter of the suit. Vivian Le appeared alongside Tacopina on NBC’s Today Show last Friday, where they both blamed Yale for creating a culture of sexual harassment that led to the Sept. 8, 2009 murder. In the interview, Le said that Yale needed to be taught a lesson in court so that it would protect its students in the future.
But in his email to the News, Bui said that most of Annie’s family does not agree with the lawsuit.
I wish there’s something more I can do to prevent my sister, Vivian Le from following through with this suit but I’m only an uncle who loves his niece as if she was my own child. Legally, there’s nothing I myself can do to block my sister from going through with the suit. Annie’s death, though tragic, no amount of compensation or justice will bring her back and for me anything less than that will not suffice. I miss my niece, and as I’m composing this email, I’m actually in California, visiting her. My sister, Tuyet Bui, her husband, Robert Nguyen, their children and relatives and my family and my mother visited Annie this past Saturday (it was a beautiful day).
I’m sorry that I can’t offer anything more but I do wish that journalists would practice some editorial integrity and stop referencing the “family of Annie Le” or the “Le family” and just reference “the mother of Annie Le”. The aforementioned reference implies that my whole family is in agreement with the suit and that is simply not the truth.
Cordially,
James D. Bui
Vivian Le and Tacopina did not respond to requests for comment.