NY's governor appoints special counsel in Cornell frat rape investigation
The governor said she'd lost faith in prosecutors overseeing the case and handed it over to New York Attorney General Letitia James.
NY governor appoints special counsel in Cornell frat rape investigation
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has named the state attorney general as special prosecutor in the investigation into the alleged gang rape of a woman at Cornell University.
The woman says she was drugged and raped by several men at a fraternity house. The case, which dates to 2024, was reopened after she filed a civil lawsuit last month that brought the allegations into the national spotlight.
“New information has raised serious questions about how this case was handled, and I've lost faith in the Tompkins County DA's ability to fairly oversee it,” Hochul said.
Hochul’s move strips Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten of oversight of the case.
Van Houten has defended his office’s earlier decision not to bring charges, saying there was not enough evidence to meet the legal standard.
He reopened the case after the civil lawsuit and said much of the information disclosed in recent weeks had not been provided to his office.
“The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued,” Hochul said in a statement.
The attorney general will, if warranted, prosecute any offences uncovered by her investigation and present evidence to a grand jury, the governor said.
James, the state’s chief legal officer, said on X that she was ready “to lead a process guided by the facts and the law”.
“The Governor has entrusted my office with this investigation, and we do not take that responsibility lightly,” James added.
The woman at the center of the case, identified anonymously as Jane Doe in court documents, filed a civil lawsuit against the Ivy League university in September.
She alleged that she was drugged and raped by seven men at a fraternity house at the university in 2024.
She said Cornell failed to protect her or properly punish the men, who are now known as the Cornell Seven.
The case was first referred to Van Houten, the county’s top prosecutor, in 2024.
Van Houten said his office did not file charges at the time because he had only seen a statement from Doe suggesting the incident was consensual and that she had not been drugged.
This week, his office said it would reopen the case — less than two weeks after Doe filed her civil lawsuit.
Cornell said it had given the district attorney’s office evidence from its own investigation, including a Snapchat group chat in which fraternity members discussed a “free” sexual encounter with Doe on the night of the alleged assault.
Doe’s lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, has accused the district attorney of repeatedly changing his account as news coverage of the case has unfolded.