Cornell sexual assault accuser told police she was 'raped with 100% confidence'

In the weeks after an October 2024 night at Cornell University's Chi Phi fraternity house, a woman sat down with campus police and described what had happened to her with unmistakable clarity. She had been pressured into consuming ketamine, marijuana, and alcohol. She became so incapacitated she could not consent. Men entered the room one after another. She was physically struck, hard and repeatedly. When asked by investigators if she was certain of what occurred, she answered without hesitation: she could say with 100% confidence she had been raped.

That transcript—obtained by CBS New York and never before made public—now sits at the center of a widening controversy over how a county prosecutor handled the case. The woman, identified in court filings only as Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit this month alleging she was sexually assaulted by seven men at the fraternity house. But when Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten's office reviewed the case in late 2024, it declined to bring charges against anyone. Van Houten has since said he never actually read the full police transcript of her interviews. Instead, he relied on a written summary prepared by a campus officer—a summary that the accuser herself had signed.

The gap between what the woman told police and what the prosecutor claims he knew has become the crux of the matter. Van Houten has maintained publicly that the woman's initial account to authorities contained no allegations of drugging, incapacitation beyond her ability to consent, or forced sexual contact. Yet the transcript tells a different story. In her own words to investigators, she described being "completely and totally incapacitated" before some of the assaults. She acknowledged memory gaps from the drugs and alcohol. She explained that while she had been willing to engage sexually with two of the men initially, she was not willing for what came after—when others entered the room and the violence began. "And then, of course, I was being hit at the same time. Physically hit very, very hard," she told police.

The woman first approached Cornell's campus police roughly three weeks after the October 19 incident. She returned for formal interviews on November 14 and 15, 2024. Cornell itself moved quickly: on November 8, the same day she first went to police, the university sent a campus-wide email warning students that someone had reported being sexually assaulted at a fraternity house after being coerced into drug use. That same day, the university suspended Chi Phi. President Michael Kotlikoff issued a public statement weeks later describing the allegations as "deeply disturbing" and involving "drug abuse and sexual violence."

But the criminal investigation stalled. With no charges filed and the university's internal disciplinary process shielded from public view by privacy rules, the case faded from attention. Cornell did say this week that its own investigation had resulted in some students being disciplined or expelled, though it declined to name them or provide details. The Chi Phi chapter remains barred from campus.

The reopening of the criminal investigation came only after the woman filed her lawsuit this month, which contained information Van Houten said was new to him. He told CNN earlier this week that his office had possessed "all of the information that the police collected" and saw "no question marks" requiring further investigation. Yet he also acknowledged to CBS News that he had never reviewed the actual transcript of her police interviews—the document in which she stated her assault with absolute certainty.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that Cornell has agreed to bring in outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation into how the university handled the woman's allegations. Hochul said she had spoken directly with Kotlikoff, who agreed to the external review. The university confirmed the commitment but offered no further comment. Hochul, in a social media post, called the behavior described in the allegations part of a broader culture that "has to stop." The criminal investigation, now reopened, continues.