State Takes Over Investigation
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Thursday that she is designating Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor to examine an alleged gang rape at Cornell University. Hochul said the young woman at the center of the case deserves a full examination of every fact and a pursuit of justice. The governor added that the step would guarantee a thorough investigation free of conflict or bias, handled independently and with the rigor the matter requires.[S1]
Hochul cited two developments as reasons her trust, and that of the public, in the district attorney's fitness to pursue the matter right now had been shaken: Matthew Van Houten's choice as Tompkins County district attorney not to bring charges in the 2024 case, and doubts voiced in recent days about how Cornell police conducted their inquiry. She added that James would take charge of the investigation and, should the evidence justify it, bring it before a grand jury.[S1]
Accuser's Lawsuit and Local Reversal
A woman who formerly studied at Cornell says she was gang-raped at a fraternity in 2024, and she brought a lawsuit in September. The matter has drawn outrage across the country, shaken the Ivy League school and raised the question of why prosecutors filed no criminal charges. Van Houten chose not to charge when the assault was first reported, yet this week he announced he would look into it again, citing fresh information contained in her lawsuit, in which she appears only as Jane Doe.[S1]
Van Houten has insisted that what the woman first told police did not mention being drugged, being so incapacitated she could not consent, or being made to have sex. After CBS News disclosed portions of the police interview transcript this week, he told the network that her fuller account had never reached him, and that he had worked instead from a statement a campus officer wrote and the accuser signed. Her suit names seven men she says carried out the assault, plus the university, the fraternity and other parties.[S1]
Denials, Discipline and Outside Review
Attorneys representing two of the sued men have said their clients committed no sexual assault. One attorney stated that his client neither touched the woman nor used any drugs. Cornell has announced that Chi Phi fraternity was suspended without a set end date and that certain students faced discipline or expulsion, though the school has withheld details, pointing to rules protecting student privacy.[S1]
Facing public and political pressure, among them Hochul, Cornell, a private institution, announced on Wednesday that it would hire outside attorneys to conduct an independent review of the way it responded to the woman's allegations.[S1]
