Cornell gang-rape accuser was ‘misled’ about criminal investigation, her lawyer says
Cornell gang-rape accuser was ‘misled’ about criminal investigation, her lawyer says
ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) — The woman accusing several men of raping her at a Cornell University fraternity party was “misled” about the status of the criminal investigation in the weeks after she went to police, her lawyer said Wednesday.
Even as she took her allegations about a 2024 gang rape at the Chi Phi fraternity house through Cornell’s internal disciplinary process, the university’s police department gave her the impression that a criminal investigation was continuing, lawyer Thomas Giuffra told The Associated Press.
In fact, the criminal inquiry ended almost as soon as it began.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, the local prosecutor, made the decision not to go forward with a criminal case within days of the woman giving her first substantial interviews to police.
Van Houten has said that he asked Cornell’s police department to convey the decision to the woman, who is referred to in court documents as Jane Doe, but never spoke personally to her or her lawyer.
Giuffra said the woman was told that the criminal investigation was ongoing.
“I think she was misled. She was told it was still — they weren’t going to prosecute, but they were still investigating,” Giuffra said. “I was involved with this case early on. I thought they were still investigating. It was news to me that they weren’t doing anything.”
Giuffra added that at the time, he assumed investigators just needed more time to speak with witnesses and build a case.
“But nothing was being done, and we didn’t know that,” Giuffra said.
A message seeking comment was left for Van Houten. Cornell’s media relations office, citing pending litigation, declined to comment on behalf of the university’s police department.
The district attorney said in a statement last week that he was confident that no further investigation was necessary after prosecutors and criminal investigators from his office reviewed a six-page summary of the woman’s account, written by a police officer.
Summary left out key details, lawyer says
Based on that summary, Van Houten said he believed no crime had been committed, and that the woman’s participation in drug use and sex was “voluntary, conscious and consensual.”
That description differs sharply with what the woman told police and university investigators, and with what she alleged in a lawsuit filed against seven Chi Phi fraternity members, Cornell and others last month.
Among other things, Giuffra said, the six-page report omitted the woman telling investigators, “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped,” that she was subjected to physical violence, and that a fraternity brother had sent a message to a group chat using a vulgar term to advertise that a woman’s body was freely available.
Last week, citing investigative records it obtained, The New York Times reported that a Cornell police investigator tried to get Van Houten’s office to consider additional evidence in the weeks after the alleged rape, but was rebuffed.
“At first I thought these police were incompetent,” Giuffra said. “It sounds like they were doing the right thing. And they just got shut down.”
Giuffra said that while he and Jane Doe have received death threats, he has been heartened by an outpouring of support, including rallies and protests on the Cornell campus and more than 1,000 women who have emailed him to share anger, frustration, solidarity and stories of their own assaults.
Students rally against sexual violence
Some Cornell students staged a sit-in at a dining hall and vowed not to spend money on campus Wednesday to protest sexual violence and how the university has handled complaints, in the latest expression of outrage over an alleged 2024 gang rape at a fraternity house.
A handwritten sign reading “Justice for Jane Doe ” — the name under which the accuser is suing — was propped on an empty table in the dining hall in the afternoon. Some students sat around the room without eating, while others lunched. Another small group sat outside holding signs with messages such as “we are Jane Doe.”
The demonstrations were meant to spotlight complaints that the university is slow to respond to reports of sexual assault while quick to protect its reputation. Among other demands, the groups want the university to retool disciplinary procedures for addressing complaints and expel or revoke the degrees of anyone involved in the alleged October 2024 sexual assault.
Jane Doe, who was a student then, alleges that Chi Phi members plied her with alcohol and drugs and several sexually assaulted her. One man sent others a message inviting them to participate, according to a lawsuit she filed last month.
Lawyers for two of the men have denied they participated in a sexual assault. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach the others or their representatives have been unsuccessful. Some of the men who underwent a university disciplinary hearing in 2024 told investigators that the sexual activity was consensual or said they were not involved.
Man in lawsuit wants attorney general removed
The woman went to Cornell police in November 2024, though no criminal charges resulted. In the wake of her lawsuit, Van Houten said he was reopening the investigation. Days later, Gov. Kathy Hochul took the case away from him and appointed the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, as a special prosecutor.
Giuffra applauded the move, saying he was troubled by Van Houten’s plan for conducting the reopened investigation and “didn’t think he was up to the task.” Giuffra said the district attorney wanted to take the case to a grand jury and have Jane Doe testify before the panel within two weeks.
That timeline, leaving little time to review evidence or interview witnesses, suggested that Van Houten may have been trying “to go take a dive and not really give it his best effort and not do any investigation,” Giuffra said.
James hasn’t said how long her investigation might take, but she suggested it would take months.
On Wednesday, one of the men named in Jane Doe’s lawsuit filed a court petition seeking James’ removal from the case, arguing she showed bias by posting on social media a few days before her appointment: “What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable.”
A spokesperson for James declined to comment.
Cornell closed down the Chi Phi campus chapter in 2024 and says it expelled some students and suspended others after an investigation under the federal Title IX law.
This week Cornell trustees brought in former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to review how the school investigates sexual assault and sexual harassment, how the disciplinary process works, the campus police response and more.
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Sisak reported from New York.
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(Corrects paragraph 2 to add missing word, paragraph 9 to fix grammar.)
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