Hochul names special prosecutor in Cornell assault case

New York Governor Kathy Hochul appointed state Attorney General Letitia James on Oct. 2 as special prosecutor for an investigation into allegations that seven students drugged and raped a woman at a Cornell University fraternity house in Ithaca in 2024.¹²

Case reassigned after new information

By naming James, Hochul shifted control of the criminal inquiry away from Matthew Van Houten, the district attorney for Tompkins County. Hochul said recently released information had raised substantial questions about the response by Cornell police and the earlier decision against criminal charges. She said she no longer trusted the county prosecutor to oversee the matter fairly. James is to direct the investigation and may submit evidence to a grand jury if the findings warrant it.¹²

James said her office would investigate the allegations fully and fairly. Hochul said the plaintiff deserved a complete examination of the facts and a pursuit of justice. Both officials were due to provide an update on the investigation.¹²

Conflicting accounts of the evidence

The former Cornell student, identified as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit in September. According to the lawsuit, seven students raped her after she was drugged inside Chi Phi’s house; one news report says the filing identifies ketamine as the substance used. The lawsuit names the seven men, Cornell, the fraternity and other defendants, and claims the university failed to protect her or impose adequate punishment.¹²⁴

Lawyers representing two defendants denied that their clients committed sexual assault, according to The Guardian. One of those lawyers said his client neither touched the plaintiff nor used drugs. No criminal charges were filed after the alleged incident was reported to Cornell police.¹

Van Houten defended his office’s earlier decision, saying the available evidence did not reach the threshold required for prosecution. He said prosecutors had received only a campus police officer’s signed statement that suggested the encounter was consensual and that the plaintiff had not been drugged. He also said he had not received her detailed account and that much of the information disclosed more recently had not reached his office.¹²

Cornell offered a different account of the evidence it supplied, saying material from its internal investigation was sent to the district attorney. The university said that material included a Snapchat group conversation about a sexual encounter with the plaintiff. Before Hochul reassigned the case, Van Houten had announced that his office would reopen it in light of new information.¹²

Cornell’s response under scrutiny

Cornell said it suspended Chi Phi indefinitely and that its investigation resulted in some students being disciplined or expelled. It declined to detail the individual sanctions, citing student privacy requirements. The chapter remains barred from campus, and The Independent reported that its members unanimously removed the accused students from its rolls.¹³⁴

The university also agreed to retain outside lawyers to conduct an independent examination of its handling of the allegations, according to The Guardian. Separately, The Straits Times reported that Hochul called for an independent review intended to assess whether Cornell fulfilled its responsibilities to protect students and pursue justice.¹⁴

The dispute comes against a longer record of changes to fraternity oversight at Cornell. In 2019, the university required Greek-life chapters to employ independent monitors for events and accept random security inspections. Cornell temporarily halted fraternity parties in 2022 following allegations of sexual assault and students being drugged.³