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Berkeley moves to fire assistant coach over sex harassment

Connor Letourneau of the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting Golden Bears head coach Cuonzo Martin dismissed Hufnagel after receiving a written report from university investigators, who spent months conducting interviews and finding evidence the coach violated UC Berkeley’s anti-sexual harassment policy. Sujit Choudhry, the dean of UC-Berkeley’s law school, resigned earlier that week amid a sexual harassment accusation against him and allegations the school mishandled the alleged victim’s complaint.

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The University of California-Berkeley stated Monday it fired Yann Hufnagel, an assistant coach for the Golden Bears men’s basketball team.

No. 4 seed Cal is set to take on No. 13 seed Hawaii in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday.

The president also on Friday unveiled a systemwide committee to review all proposed sanctions against senior officials accused of sexual assault or harassment violations.

Share with Us – We’d love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article, and smart, constructive criticism. Cal’s now-former assistant coach said on Twitter he would “exonerate” himself when the time is right.

“I’m crushed”, Hufnagel told the TV network.

Hufnagel, 33, is at least the fourth campus employee in the past year to face sexual harassment allegations that were substantiated during campus investigations. We’ll push forward. There’s always bumps in the road. We talk about these things, life things.

Hufnagel came to Cal with Martin two years ago following one season as an assistant at Vanderbilt and four years at Harvard, where he was credited with helping to develop Palo Alto’s Jeremy Lin into an National Basketball Association guard.

“Prompt and effective responses to findings of sexual harassment and sexual violence are key to changing behavior”, Napolitano wrote to Dirks.

According to athletic department spokesperson Wes Mallette the investigation was opened last August and ‘the accuser detailed a series of interactions with Hufnagel that occurred between November 2014 and May 2015, as part of professional communications, that violated the university’s anti-sexual harassment policy’.

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The assistant coach was sacked straight after the University’s report was given to Martin.

Head coach Cuonzo Martin told reporters he will now'find a way to keep his team's focus amid the recent news