A New York prosecutor said that he hoped to speak with a former Cornell University student as soon as possible “to discuss new evidence that exists” about her claims that she was sexually assaulted in 2024.
Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County district attorney, said in an interview that it wasn’t “even a close call” when he decided not to bring charges against members of a Cornell fraternity in 2024, when the accuser, known as Jane Doe, reported to the police that she had been sexually assaulted by several men.
Mr. Von Houten acknowledged that the woman’s account had been credible and “very specific” and “very detailed.” But he added that even though “everybody across the world agrees that what happened was wrong, it was morally wrong, it was disgusting,” the allegations made by the woman at the time did not rise to a crime under state law.
“And my job is to evaluate the evidence based on the law, and the law alone, and not emotion, not social media,” Mr. Van Houten said. “And not public sentiment.” He said a lawsuit that the woman filed earlier this month against Cornell University, seven men, a fraternity and her sorority still did not provide the facts that could support a criminal case under the law.
But late on Tuesday, he said he had been provided with new evidence that his office would review to determine if her case could now be taken to a grand jury. Mr. Van Houten said he would reach out again to her lawyer on Wednesday to request a meeting with her. He did not provide any details about the nature of the evidence.
The woman’s lawsuit put a sudden, harsh spotlight on Mr. Van Houten’s small office in upstate Ithaca, N.Y. The campus newspaper, celebrities and politicians raised questions about whether the case had been handled properly in 2024, renewing the discourse around the persistent issue of sexual assaults on college campuses.
Thomas Giuffra, who represents Jane Doe, said on Tuesday that while he will cooperate with the investigation, Mr. Von Houten’s recent statements have left him skeptical.
“I’m a little concerned that his endgame is to do this halfhearted attempt to present this case at the grand jury, to just prove he believed what he thinks he was right in the first place,” he said. “Which is just frightening when you think about it.”
He added, “I don’t trust that they’re going to do what they need to do.”
In her lawsuit, the woman alleged that she was plied with alcohol and drugs and then raped by several men at the Chi Phi fraternity house on Oct. 19, 2024, when she was a 20-year-old Cornell undergraduate.
If her report to the Cornell Police Department in 2024 had supported that she had been drugged and was unconscious when she had been assaulted, Mr. Von Houten said, “these guys would be in prison right now.” But, he said, “retired police officers and experienced prosecutors all reviewed the case.” He added, “And it was unanimous that there was no crime alleged based on the facts that Jane Doe wrote in her statement.”
According to prosecutors, New York’s rape law excludes people who were voluntarily intoxicated from claiming they were “mentally incapacitated” during an assault and therefore unable to consent.
Mr. Von Houten’s statements on Tuesday were in line with the nine-page statement he released on Monday, which he said was intended to combat the “social media spin” that had spread online.
In the days after the lawsuit, information about the accused men spread online, from an editorial in The Cornell Daily Sun that printed their names to new websites dedicated to documenting all aspects of the case.
The public response has also put a spotlight on the workings, and constraints, of small law enforcement agencies. The revelation that the woman had never been interviewed by prosecutors in 2024 also raised questions about how Mr. Van Houten’s office had handled her allegations.
According to Mr. Von Houten, his office, staffed by nine lawyers, does not conduct its own investigations. When a report alleging a crime comes to his team for review, he relies on the information gathered by the police department investigating the case, he said. If his prosecutors determined that more information was needed, they would have to ask the police department to investigate it further, he said.
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