New York Governor Kathy Hochul has removed the Tompkins County District Attorney from a high-profile sexual assault investigation at Cornell University and handed the case to state Attorney General Letitia James following widespread public outrage over how the matter was initially handled.
The case centers on a woman’s lawsuit alleging she was drugged with ketamine and gang-raped by members of the Chi Phi fraternity at their campus residence in October 2024. She reported the assault to Cornell police roughly three weeks after it occurred and gave investigators a detailed account over two days.
District Attorney Matthew Van Houten initially declined to pursue criminal charges after reviewing only a police summary of the woman’s interview. He later revealed that Cornell police had withheld critical evidence including a full transcript in which the woman stated she was “100% confident” she had been raped.
Van Houten argued that under New York law being intoxicated does not automatically constitute legal incapacitation and said the materials he received suggested some activity may have appeared consensual. He has since reopened the investigation but Hochul said she had lost confidence in his handling of the case.
Governor Hochul appointed James as a special prosecutor saying the victim had been failed at every turn by people and institutions with an obligation to protect her. James said at a news conference Friday that the investigation would likely take several months and would proceed without any predetermined outcome.
Cornell’s internal disciplinary investigation found that the woman initially consented to sex with two men but that other fraternity members later entered the room after one brother sent a Snapchat message using vulgar language to advertise the woman’s availability. The woman told investigators she felt partly defenseless and described men inhaling drugs off her unclothed body.
Cornell said the internal investigation resulted in some students being expelled while others were cleared of sexual assault allegations. The school has not released full details of its findings.
The case has ignited calls for reform both on campus and in state law. Every fraternity in Cornell’s Interfraternity Council voted unanimously to cancel weekend social events and 20 student organizations announced a protest Monday demanding an independent review and policy changes.
Hochul also expressed support for changing New York’s sexual assault statutes which currently make it harder to prosecute cases involving victims too intoxicated to consent. New York is among 19 states with similar legal standards.