Gov. Hochul on Friday said Cornell University and a local district attorney “failed” the young woman at the center of an alleged 2024 gang rape at a university fraternity house as she spoke Friday on her decision to appoint the New York attorney general as special prosecutor.
The resurfaced allegations garnered national attention last month when the woman, a former Cornell undergraduate student and sorority member, filed a lawsuit against the university and seven Chi Phi members, who she said plied her with drugs and repeatedly sexually assaulted her over several hours.
The woman, a 20-year-old sophomore at the time known as “Jane Doe” in court filings, previously reported the allegations to campus police, in which she said, “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped,” according to recent news reports of her interview with Cornell police. The transcript was summarized as a six-page written statement, shared with the local district attorney.
“She could not have been clearer that she was 100% confident that she had been raped,” Hochul said during an impassioned, at times contentious, news conference in Midtown Manhattan. “Yet, shockingly, those words never made it into the account that the Cornell Police sent to prosecutors.”
“Think about that. In what world would the police learn from a victim that she’d been literally gang-raped while intoxicated by … men in a fraternity house, and not elevate those allegations to the district attorney? In what world does the district attorney not even interview her, or anyone else involved, or even request the full transcript?”
“This woman, this young woman, had already endured something that is utterly unspeakable, and then at every turn, she was failed by people and institutions with an obligation to protect her.”
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has said he was never shown the full transcript and relied on the written statement when he decided not to file criminal charges. Amid public outcry, he reversed course last month and said his office would reopen the investigation to see if charges were warranted.
“Multiple prosecutors and criminal investigators reviewed Jane Doe’s statement and correctly determined the alleged facts as set forth in the statement do not constitute a crime,” Van Houten said in a lengthy statement on Monday. In a follow-up statement to NBC News after the press conference, he pledged to cooperate with the attorney general and said, “It has become clear that we were not provided the full picture by the University.”
The governor said, if substantiated by the investigation, Cornell’s decision to send over a “partial record” and the district attorney’s choice not to request the transcript are a “failure.”
Hochul first named Attorney General Letitia James to serve as special prosecutor on Thursday night by signing an executive order, citing “newly released information” that raised “serious questions” about Cornell’s response and the district attorney’s decision not to prosecute.
The governor said James will investigate and, if appropriate, move to prosecute the fraternity members and present evidence to a grand jury.
“I stand ready to lead a process guided by the facts and the law,” James said at the press conference. “In the coming months, my office will dutifully carry out the responsibilities the governor has conferred upon us.”
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Pedestrians walk on the campus at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., on Thursday. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Hochul stopped short of calling for the resignations of Van Houten or Cornell president Michael Kotlikoff. James said her investigation will focus on the gang rape allegations — not the actions, or lack thereof, of the district attorney for now.
Separately, the governor on Tuesday called for an independent review by outside counsel of Cornell’s response to the allegations; the university agreed by the next day. Hochul said Friday the Board of Trustees was holding a meeting to seek an attorney for the review.
Cornell has come under fire over claims that fraternity members had the opportunity to write essays as part of their discipline, and the majority of them were able to avoid expulsion. The woman, meanwhile, later dropped out of school.
The episode has also raised concerns about campus culture. A photo of a Snapchat group chat on the night of the alleged offense appeared to show one of the men advertising “free p*ssy” in the house, to the enthusiastic support of his fraternity brothers.
A Cornell spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment, though school officials have defended the rigor of their investigation and ensuing sanctions, which included an unspecified number of suspensions and expulsions.
At the news conference, Hochul also backed legal reforms on Friday to close what she called a “loophole” in New York law that makes it next to impossible for survivors of sexual assault to bring charges if they voluntarily used drugs or alcohol.
“This case also exposed another problem we need to address: a gap in state law,” the governor 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.”
“I support closing this loophole, and will work with the New York State Legislature to accomplish this.”
Hochul declined to say if she plans to call a special session. “But at minimum, I would say this is something we could easily take up early in the session,” she said, citing an existing state bill that has repeatedly passed the State Senate but stalled in the Assembly and future efforts to fix “any other glaring deficiencies in state law.”
