Kathy Hochul, New York’s governor, said on Friday that she would “ensure” that all the facts of the alleged gang-rape at a fraternity house at Cornell University “are brought into the light”, while harshly criticizing the elite institution for how it handled the 2024 case. Hochul, a Democrat, said the woman in the case, was “failed” by people obligated to protect her, including the police and the county prosecutor. In a rare legal development, Hochul late on Thursday announced that the state attorney general, Letitia James, was taking over the entire case as a special prosecutor.
That they will be seen and heard. I stand ready to lead a process guided by the facts and the law,” James said. James will oversee the investigation and, if warranted, present evidence to a grand jury in a process that could lead to criminal charges.
Hochul sharply criticized the investigation that began in 2024 after the woman in the case went to the police. The governor also criticized what she called “a gap in state law” that makes it very difficult to bring charges relating to accusations of sexual crimes when the alleged victim was voluntarily intoxicated. She said: “If someone is too intoxicated to consent, it should not matter whether they chose to use drugs or alcohol.
Voluntary intoxication is not a license for sexual assault or gang-rape. Period.” Hochul said on Thursday she was appointing James after she “lost faith” in the ability of the local Tompkins county district attorney, Matthew Van Houten, to oversee the case after he decided not to prosecute the case in 2024, among other reasons. Prior to James’s appointment this week, Van Houten had reopened the investigation.
A former Cornell University student, who identifies by the pseudonym Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit in September alleging she was gang-raped at a fraternity in 2024, when she was 20. She said she was drugged and repeatedly raped over the course of seven hours. The case has sparked national outrage, roiled the campus and raised questions about why no criminal case was brought.
Thomas Giuffra, a lawyer for Jane Doe, told CNN on Friday morning that his client was “not doing well” amid the uproar and that they feel as though “a cover-up was going on” in order to protect the university and its reputation. He added that he had “a real issue” with the district attorney and accused him of trying to “throw” his client “under the bus”. On Friday, Cornell University said it supported Hochul, including her effort to pass legislation to update the relevant law.
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