NY Governor Removes DA From Cornell Rape Case, Appoints Special Prosecutor

Governor Kathy Hochul removed the Tompkins County District Attorney from a rape investigation on Thursday, citing lost confidence in how the case had been handled. She appointed New York's Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor to take over the inquiry, which centers on allegations that a woman was drugged and assaulted by seven men at a Cornell University fraternity house in 2024.

The case had gone dormant for nearly two years until the woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit against Cornell last month. That filing brought the allegations into public view and prompted questions about why no criminal charges had been brought. District Attorney Matthew Van Houten had initially declined to prosecute, saying his office lacked sufficient evidence to meet the legal threshold for charges. He noted that the only material he had received at the time was a statement from the woman that suggested the encounter was consensual and that she had not been drugged.

But the reopening of the case revealed a different picture. Cornell University had conducted its own investigation and provided evidence to Van Houten's office, including Snapchat messages in which fraternity members discussed a "free" sexual encounter with the woman on the night in question. Van Houten's office announced it would reopen the investigation less than two weeks after the civil lawsuit was filed. The woman's attorney, Thomas Giuffra, accused the district attorney of repeatedly changing his account of events as media coverage intensified.

Hochul's statement was direct about her reasoning. "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," she said. She emphasized that the woman deserved to have every fact examined and justice pursued. Attorney General James said her office would lead an investigation guided by facts and law, and if warranted, would prosecute any offenses discovered and present evidence to a grand jury.

Van Houten's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. He has maintained that his previous decision not to file charges was based on the evidence available to him at that time, and that much of the information released in recent weeks about the case had not been passed to his office initially.

The governor and attorney general are scheduled to provide an update on the investigation Friday morning. The case has drawn national attention as questions mount about how universities and local prosecutors handle sexual assault allegations, and whether institutional failures allowed accused perpetrators to avoid accountability.