Hochul Names Letitia James as Special Prosecutor in Cornell Case

Gov. Kathy Hochul has named Letitia James, the New York State attorney general, to serve as special prosecutor to investigate a woman's allegation that she was raped on Cornell University's campus in October 2024.

In a statement on Thursday night, Ms. Hochul said that she would be assigning Ms. James, who had already begun a review of the way law enforcement handled the matter, to oversee the investigation in Tompkins County.

"New information has raised serious questions about how this case was handled, and I've lost faith in the Tompkins County D.A.'s ability to fairly oversee it," Ms. Hochul said.

She added, "The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued."

On Thursday morning, The New York Times published a detailed account of the woman's weeks of struggle before she reported the incident, after obtaining more than 1,000 pages from the university's internal inquiry.

In a lawsuit filed last month, the woman, identified as Jane Doe, said that when she was a 20-year-old sophomore, she was plied with alcohol and drugs and then raped by multiple men at the Chi Phi fraternity house. She reported the incident to the Cornell University Police Department several weeks later, but no criminal charges were filed.

Lawyers for at least three of the seven accused men have issued statements denying criminal wrongdoing. This week, Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County district attorney, said his office would reopen the investigation into Jane Doe's allegations.

Mr. Van Houten has defended his office's work in 2024. In a statement this week, he said that the original statement the woman gave to police did not seem to warrant criminal charges.

"Jane Doe's sworn statement in November of 2024 did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped," he said in the statement.

Mr. Van Houten has said that his office only reviewed a six-page report provided by Cornell police. But in recent days, as more information about what the authorities knew became public, Mr. Van Houten's decision to not prosecute the case has faced a wave of public backlash.

At the center of the criticism has been the revelation that the woman, in her statements to the police at the time, said that she could say "with 100 percent confidence I was raped." While the six-page statement explained that she felt some of the night's events were a crime, it omitted the more definitive language detailed in an transcription of her interview with investigators.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.