Zwillinger Wulkan and Kuykendall & Associates File Notice of Claim Against the University of Arizona
— for the Murder of Professor Dr. Thomas Meixner
PHOENIX | TUCSON, ARIZONA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Zwillinger Wulkan and Kuykendall & Associates, filed a Notice of Claim with the Arizona Board of Regents seeking $9,000,000 for the University of Arizona's shameful, pass-the-buck response to repeated violent threats that directly led to Dr. Thomas Meixner’s tragic murder.
On October 5, 2022, a former graduate student with a long, well-documented history of violence, stalking and death threats, murdered Dr. Thomas Meixner. For more than a year before his murder, Dr. Meixner, multiple faculty members, and administrators pleaded with the University of Arizona, including its police department, to act before it was too late. The University’s utter failure to do even the bare minimum, to ensure safety on its campus, resulted in the murder of Dr. Meixner.
The University’s own Faculty Senate report recounts repeated missed opportunities to keep its staff and students safe, and the many times it ignored the obvious warning signs that the student planned to fulfill his stated homicidal intentions. For over a year, he terrorized University personnel with threatening, racist emails, text messages, and public encounters. These messages include shocking threats of violence and death. When faculty presented these instances to the University administration and UAPD, they were met with bureaucratic indifference. Despite the overwhelming evidence of the obvious threat, the University of Arizona repeatedly downplayed the significance of the situation and failed to report these incidents to the appropriate authorities. Dr. Meixner and his family deserved far better.
“The University of Arizona destroyed the Meixners’ lives,” Zwillinger Wulkan attorney Larry Wulkan said. Wulkan continued: “The University of Arizona must be held responsible for its track record of deliberate indifference to serious threats of violence.” Attorney Kuykendall added, “In this environment of uncontrolled firearm availability, a University administration must take proactive steps to prevent even more on-campus shootings.”
The Arizona Board of Regents has 60 days to respond to the Meixners’ Notice of Claim. “If the University of Arizona fails to accept responsibility and compensate the Meixners for their enormous losses, we are prepared to file a lawsuit to seek the full measure of justice for our clients,” said Wulkan.
Zwillinger Wulkan is a leading Arizona law firm with a single goal: finding solutions to complex problems.
