Hochul Appoints James Special Prosecutor in Alleged Cornell Assault Case

A former Cornell student's civil lawsuit alleging she was drugged and repeatedly raped by seven men in 2024 has reopened a criminal investigation that prosecutors closed after reviewing a single police interview.

• 7 men are named in the lawsuit; none has been criminally charged.
• 94% of police academies offering sexual assault training give recruits an average of seven hours.
• 3 days after Jane Doe's sworn statement, Chi Phi's Cornell chapter voted to dismiss accused members.
• 44 on-campus rape and fondling incidents were reported at Cornell in 2024 under Clery Act data.

Why it matters: How police question a survivor in the hours and days after an assault can determine whether a case moves forward at all.

• Trauma researchers say gaps and inconsistencies in a survivor's initial statement typically reflect trauma and questioning methods — not dishonesty.
• Ithaca Police said it learned of the 2024 allegations only through media coverage — never from Cornell or the DA's office.

How 78 sources split on this story

Where they split: The central dispute is whether the DA's office appropriately relied on a single campus-police interview of Jane Doe, or whether that reliance allowed a complex sexual assault case to be closed without adequate investigation.

What’s next: The Tompkins County DA will take the case to a grand jury after reopening the investigation.

• Gov. Hochul has called for independent outside counsel to review Cornell's response.
• What the full transcript of Jane Doe's 2024 interview shows — and whether investigators followed up on the parts where she said she could not remember or did not consent.
• What happened to the three accused men who were not among the four Chi Phi members dismissed by the chapter.
• Whether the grand jury will lead to criminal charges, and on what timeline.