New York Governor Kathy Hochul has appointed State Attorney General Letitia James to act as a special prosecutor to investigate allegations by a former student that she was sexually assaulted on the Cornell University campus. Governor Hochul announced on Thursday night that she was assigning Ms. James to oversee the inquiry in Tompkins County, noting that she had already started reviewing how local law enforcement managed the situation. The governor stated that new information raised serious questions about the handling of the case and that she had lost faith in the Tompkins County district attorney’s ability to fairly oversee it, emphasizing that the young woman deserves a thorough examination of every fact and the pursuit of justice. The decision follows a detailed report published Thursday morning by The New York Times, which outlined the woman’s struggles before reporting the incident after reviewing over 1,000 pages of internal university records. In a lawsuit filed last month, the plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, stated that when she was a 20-year-old sophomore in October 2024, she was given alcohol and drugs before being assaulted by multiple men at the Chi Phi fraternity house. Although she reported the incident to campus police weeks later, no criminal charges were initially filed. Legal representatives for at least three of the seven accused individuals have denied any criminal wrongdoing. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced this week that his office would reopen the investigation into the allegations, while defending his previous handling of the matter. Mr. Van Houten maintained that the initial statement provided by the woman did not appear to warrant criminal charges, noting that her sworn statement from November 2024 did not claim she was drugged against her will or gang-raped. He stated that his office originally reviewed only a six-page report supplied by Cornell police. However, his decision not to prosecute has drawn widespread public criticism following revelations that the woman told police she could state with 100 percent confidence that she was raped. While the six-page police summary indicated she felt part of the night’s events constituted a crime, it omitted the more definitive language contained in the full transcript of her interview with investigators.
Source: nytimes.com
