Special prosecutor takes over Cornell alleged gang rape investigation as national outrage grows
By Jessie Yeung, Gloria Pazmino, Jason Carroll, CNN
(CNN) — A special prosecutor is taking over the investigation into the 2024 alleged gang rape of a former student at Cornell University, as national outrage and demands for accountability reignite the conversation around sexual assault on college campuses.
As the probe escalates, fury has erupted among Cornell students, parents, and faculty who call for stronger repercussions against the alleged perpetrators and for university officials to resign, as new information emerges this week that raise questions over how the case was originally handled by the university and law enforcement.
“I think I can speak for every single one of us when I say we’re absolutely ashamed of the events that happened on our campus,” said student assembly president Eeshaan Chaudhuri at a public forum on campus Thursday night.
Some students at the event blamed Cornell officials for not doing enough to protect the former student, identified as Jane Doe, while others faulted university investigators and broader institutional issues, including fraternity culture.
The revelations this week, including what Doe told campus police about the alleged assault at the Chi Phi fraternity house that began October 19, 2024, have raised serious questions about what Cornell found during its investigation and what was shared with the county district attorney – who told CNN his office never received more than exchanged Snapchat messages related to the incident and a six-page investigative report before deciding not to bring charges against the accused in 2024.
In her announcement Thursday naming State Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the case, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she had “lost faith” in the county district attorney’s ability to “fairly oversee” the investigation.
She and James will hold a news conference Friday about the next steps in the investigation.
Cornell has said police followed protocol and shared “all investigatory information” with the DA. The university told CNN Thursday it supports the governor’s decision.
The university has declined to confirm individual disciplinary outcomes, citing federal student privacy law, but said university policy violations “could lead to sanctions up to and including suspension or expulsion.” The Chi Phi chapter was banned from campus in 2024 and a Cornell task force addressing sexual assault issued a final report earlier this year.
Here’s what we know.
Outraged campus community
Students, parents and faculty at the student assembly hearing on Thursday gave an outpouring of support for Doe, with some describing the case’s impact on the community.
Sophia Riley Sim, a junior, described the campus as being in a “mental health crisis,” with students struggling to grieve while upholding their academic responsibilities.
“I was devastated by what happened to Jane Doe two years ago, when I was a freshman, and I’m a junior now, and I cried about it then, and I am still equally devastated and pained about it now, and I am terribly disappointed in our university,” she said.
The majority of the meeting was off the record, so students could come forward and share freely. However, some students spoke in front of reporters for a public portion of the event.
One student, Jane Wang, shared that she had also reported sexual assault to the university, and felt unsupported and let down by its Title IX investigation process.
“I’m also speaking as a fellow Jane Doe,” said Wang, a junior, adding students like herself need to know that when witnesses come forward, “somebody will listen and that a broader institution will act on it.”
Cereese Qusba, senior editor of student newspaper The Cornell Daily Sun, which first broke news of Doe’s lawsuit, told CNN the room cheered after some called for the resignation of university officials.
Qusba told CNN it feels as though the university faces a reckoning in how it grapples with cases of sexual assault on campus, saying: “I think it reminds everyone of the MeToo movement ten years ago. And this is now marking a decade since that has happened.”
“We see this across the social media and the wider community. We’ve watched it grow and become an international issue as well. What I can say is, I don’t think that the university can return to a status quo after this.”
Special prosecutor steps in
Since Doe’s civil lawsuit last month sparked national attention and prompted the reopening of an investigation into the alleged assault, new evidence calls into question the initial probe by the county district attorney, as well as Cornell’s own response.
“New information has raised serious questions about how this case was handled, and I’ve lost faith in the Tompkins County DA’s ability to fairly oversee it,” Hochul said in her announcement on Thursday.
“The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued,” she wrote.
James will now have the power to investigate the incident and, if warranted, prosecute any offenses and present evidence to a grand jury.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has said his office did not bring criminal charges against the men involved because of Doe’s signed six-page statement to police, which did not include some of the allegations and details added in the lawsuit.
“Multiple prosecutors and criminal investigators reviewed Jane Doe’s statement and correctly determined the alleged facts as set forth in the statement do not constitute a crime,” he told CNN earlier this week.
He also said this week his office had access to some Snapchat messages exchanged during the alleged assault in a group chat titled “Chi Phi Actives.” Images of one Snapchat chain obtained by CNN include a photo of Doe in a room at the fraternity house during the time she describes being assaulted.
Other evidence has also emerged this week which Van Houten says was not made available to his office, including a transcript of a November 2024 interview with campus police, in which Doe explicitly says, “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped.”
There are also new details from the university’s Title IX investigation, records of which were exclusively obtained by the New York Times and corroborated by Doe’s attorney.
CNN obtained a copy of a heavily redacted, 99-page document summarizing the key evidence included in the Cornell disciplinary panel’s findings, which supports the Times’ findings about how Doe later came to understand the night’s events as assault.
What happened after Doe reported alleged assault to police
According to the documents, Doe first reported the alleged gang rape to campus police in 2024, roughly three weeks after the October night.
At the time, a police officer “condensed” Doe’s hours-long interview into a six-page document, which “omitted” her “unequivocal statement that she had been raped,” as well as other stronger language she had used, according to the Times, citing documents it had obtained. After leaving her own handwritten corrections, Doe signed off on the final version of statement the next day, which was shared with the DA’s office along with the Snapchat messages.
Police officers had tried to contact the alleged perpetrators, with “varying degrees of success,” according to the Times, citing the documents.
At the same time, Cornell held its own formal Title IX investigation into the case, in which it held more than 50 interviews, including with six of the seven accused, according to the heavily redacted document obtained by CNN.
According to the document, at least one of the men was found to have violated the school’s policy against sexual exploitation and sexual assault, and at least one respondent was found responsible for attempted sexual exploitation, but was not found responsible for sexual assault.
The university investigation led to suspensions and expulsions for the accused students, according to Doe’s attorney, the barring of the fraternity chapter from campus and the launch of a sexual assault task force.
For the man found responsible only for attempted sexual exploitation, the Cornell panel imposed several sanctions: a “no contact order” with Jane Doe, an order to submit to the Title IX office a “reflection paper” on the circumstances he was found responsible, and an order to take a corrective class.
The university has declined to confirm the individual disciplinary outcomes, citing federal student privacy law. The school said violations of university policy “could lead to sanctions up to and including suspension or expulsion,” adding, “We will respond in detail through the legal process.”
CNN has not seen the full Title IX filings, which are generally confidential and restricted to the parties involved.
According to the Times, citing the Title IX filings, the men accused have denied any wrongdoing, with one telling investigators that he also was “a victim of sexual misconduct” because the woman had given him oral sex when he was “too incapacitated” to consent.
Doe’s complaint alleges she was provided alcohol and pressured her into snorting a substance described as ketamine, and that she was then sexually assaulted while “incapable of consent.”
According to the Times, the men’s accounts differed, contradicted each other, and were contrary to the statements given by the woman to Cornell police in 2024.
Four of the Chi Phi fraternity members acknowledged having sexual contact with the woman, but said that their interactions had been consensual. The others denied participating in sexual encounters, the Times reported.
Lawyers for three of the men accused of being involved have since issued statements denying wrongdoing. CNN is working to see if the others accused have legal representation.
Doe’s attorney, Thomas P. Giuffra, said he didn’t believe the trove of details from the Title IX investigation were ever given to Cornell police.
“I believe that the information was not, because what is contained in the proceedings is evidence of several crimes being committed with excellent supporting evidence,” Giuffra said in a statement to CNN.
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CNN’s Isa Mudannayake, Jake Tapper, Jeff Winter, Alex Stambaugh, Danya Gainor, Holly Yan, Chris Boyette, Rebekah Riess, Cindy Von Quednow, Avni Trivedi, and Pamela Brown contributed to this report.
