People walk on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 2024.
Seth Wenig/AP
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Seth Wenig/AP
New York prosecutors announced the reopening of an investigation into an alleged 2024 rape case involving Cornell University students.
This comes after the alleged victim, named Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court this month. In it, she claims that several men drugged and brutally raped her for more than four hours at a Cornell fraternity house in October 2024.
In a nine-page statement, Tompkins County Prosecutor Matthew Van Houten announced that efforts were underway to reexamine the case. Once his office determines appropriate charges, the case will be presented to a grand jury, he said. Van Houten said he had assigned a senior prosecutor, experienced in sex crimes, to begin preparations.
Cornell University released a statement following the announcement that prosecutors would re-examine the case.
The school said it supported the decision but defended the way university officials handled the matter two years ago. Kyle Kimball, vice president for university relations at Cornell, said the school “conducted an extensive Title IX investigation” that lasted several months.
No criminal charges were ever filed.
But Cornell said it held a hearing in which “a panel of qualified faculty and staff heard testimony over several days,” including testimony from all parties.
At the end of this hearing, expulsions and suspensions were pronounced. The press release does not specify which people faced these consequences.
Kimball continued in his statement: “Any suggestion that the university did not impose meaningful sanctions on those involved is false. »
The Xi chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity, of which the alleged rapists were members, was banned from campus two years ago when the details first came to light.
Doe sues seven alleged rapists, fraternity, Cornell University and others.
His lawyers did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
The case received intense scrutiny on social media following Doe’s trial. Van Houten said people have called his office demanding answers about why the case was never investigated. Others called to insult and threaten them, he added.
Van Houten acknowledged the outrage. In defending his position, he said the allegations in the civil lawsuit differ from the anonymous victim’s affidavit from two years ago.
“Jane Doe’s November 2024 affidavit did not assert that she was drugged against her will or gang raped. Rather, Jane Doe’s affidavit described her participation in the drug use and sexual behavior as voluntary, knowing, and consensual,” he wrote. “My office obviously did not and could not have based our November 2024 decision on allegations in a civil lawsuit that would not be filed until nearly two years later.”
Van Houten added that his office was never contacted by Doe’s lawyers.
“Not informing me that the original statement was inaccurate and not asking me to reconsider our decision,” he said. Van Houten said he contacted Doe’s lawyers to understand the “discrepancy.”
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