Prosecutors in New York have reopened an investigation into an alleged 2024 gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity house after a civil lawsuit was filed by the alleged victim earlier this month, drawing widespread public condemnation and questions about why more action wasn’t taken sooner.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten confirmed in a statement Monday that his office is reviewing potential criminal charges after the former Cornell student accused seven former and current Chi Phi fraternity members of drugging, assaulting and gang raping her.
Van Houten said his office previously reviewed the incident based on statements the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, gave to police two years ago. At the time, she did not allege having been drugged or gang raped, he said, and “the evidence did not support the filing of criminal charges.”
“On the contrary, Jane Doe’s statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual,” he said. “My office obviously did not and could not have based our November 2024 decision on the allegations in a civil lawsuit that would not be filed until nearly two years later.”
Commenting on why the woman’s story may be different today, he said that “it can take years of therapy and healing for victims of sexual assaults to fully process and understand what happened to them.”
He added, “To be clear, the credibility of the woman, who described the facts in excruciating detail, was never in question.” He then shared that his office has reached out to the woman and her attorneys and that the case will be prosecuted “once we determine the appropriate charges.”
Attorney Thomas P. Giuffra, whose office filed the lawsuit against the fraternity, school and the alleged students involved, told HuffPost that the original investigation was based on one police statement that she gave while still “traumatized, numb and unable to function or accept the horror of what had happened.
“She was in self preservation mode,” he said in an email.
“The legal complaint is much more detailed and lengthy because I took the time to meet with Ms. Doe multiple times and learn the specific facts of what had occurred,” he went on. “Interviewing a survivor is a difficult process that takes a lot of time and experience. It is never easy for a survivor to share details of an assault with a stranger. Trust must be developed and a lot of time spent learning the facts and engaging with the survivor.”
Giuffra expressed worry that, given the amount of time that has passed, and the accused students having not been interviewed at the time of the incident, “we will never fully know what occurred or the identities of everyone who was involved that night.
“The involved parties have now ‘lawyered up’ and will not be cooperative,” he said.
In her 101-page lawsuit, the woman accuses the men of physically taking advantage of her shortly after she entered the Chi Phi fraternity house while visibly intoxicated and “incapable of consenting” to multiple sex acts and drug use forced upon her.
During the alleged hours-long assault, one of the men texted other fraternity members in a Snapchat group titled “Chi Phi Actives,” telling them there was “free pussy” upstairs, the lawsuit states, with a photo showing the alleged text thread. This alert led to more men entering the room and raping her, her suit claims.
The woman said she left in a state of shock but days later reported what happened to campus police with the encouragement of friends on Nov. 8, resulting in the school suspending the seven male students and the fraternity chapter. The male students “were afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct” if they completed an essay, her suit states.
In a statement last week, Cornell University defended its handling of the incident at the time, saying its Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards “investigated and adjudicated the allegations consistent with university policies.”
It declined to comment on specific students or “any other disciplinary response,” citing federal privacy law.