New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order on Thursday appointing state Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the alleged 2024 gang rape of a Cornell University student. James's office will now run the criminal investigation, superseding the Tompkins County district attorney. If the evidence warrants it, James can prosecute offenses arising from the investigation and present them to a grand jury.
"Newly released information continues to raise serious questions about the investigation conducted by the Cornell Police Department and the decision by the Tompkins County District Attorney not to prosecute an alleged sexual assault on Cornell University's campus in October 2024," Hochul said in a statement. "This has, in turn, undercut my faith, and the public's faith, in the District Attorney's ability to effectively investigate and prosecute the case at this time."
She said the appointment would ensure "that the matter is fully and thoroughly investigated without conflict or bias, and handled independently with the rigor that this matter demands."
The case was closed without charges in 2024. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said he declined to prosecute because the accuser's sworn statement to Cornell police did not accuse the male students of rape.
That decision unraveled this week as new material surfaced. The New York Times obtained more than 1,000 pages from Cornell's internal Title IX investigation, showing how the woman's account evolved over the weeks after the alleged assault. CBS obtained a transcript of the accuser's police interview containing far more detail than the sworn statement police eventually handed to prosecutors — the accuser told investigators, "I can say with 100% confidence I was raped." CNN published Snapchat messages from the night of the incident, including a photo of the woman inside the Chi Phi fraternity house.
The woman, then 20, filed a civil lawsuit last month alleging she was gang-raped by seven men at the Chi Phi house on Oct. 19, 2024, and was pressured to take ketamine and plied with alcohol. The suit names seven fraternity members, the Chi Phi fraternity, Cornell, a bar, and her own sorority as defendants.
James's office had announced earlier Thursday that it was launching its own civil review of the allegations. The special-prosecutor appointment goes further, giving her criminal jurisdiction over the case.
Van Houten reopened his office's investigation on Monday, saying the allegations in the civil complaint were "dramatically different" from the statement she gave police in 2024. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday night. Cornell said it supports the governor's decision. Attorneys for three of the men named in the lawsuit have publicly denied any criminal wrongdoing. Hochul, James, and Van Houten are all Democrats.
"The Governor has entrusted my office with this investigation, and we do not take that responsibility lightly," James said in a statement. "As our state's Chief Law Enforcement Officer, I stand ready to lead a process New Yorkers can trust, guided by the facts and the law."
Her office will decide whether to bring evidence to a grand jury. Separately, Hochul earlier this week called for a third-party investigation into Cornell's handling of the case, and university president Michael Kotlikoff agreed to the independent review. A 2025 Cornell survey cited by People found that 35 percent of undergraduate women reported experiencing "nonconsensual sexual contact" during their time at the university, up from 23 percent in the 2023 survey.