Gov. Kathy Hochul has named Letitia James, the New York State attorney general, to serve as special prosecutor to investigate a woman’s allegation that she was raped in a fraternity house near Cornell University’s campus in October 2024.
In a post on X on Thursday night, Ms. Hochul said that she would be assigning Ms. James, who had already begun a review of the way law enforcement handled the matter, to oversee the investigation in Tompkins County.
“New information has raised serious questions about how this case was handled, and I’ve lost faith in the Tompkins County D.A.’s ability to fairly oversee it,” Ms. Hochul said.
She added, “The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued.”
The announcement marked a dramatic development in a case that has horrified many Americans and renewed a long-running national conversation about sexual assault on college campuses.
The authorities in Ithaca, N.Y., have faced intense backlash over how they investigated the Oct. 19, 2024, encounter between a woman known as Jane Doe and a number of men at the Chi Phi fraternity house. Facing a public outcry, Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County district attorney, said on Monday that his office would reopen the investigation into Jane Doe’s allegations.
In a lawsuit filed last month, the woman said that when she was a 20-year-old sophomore, she was plied with alcohol and drugs and then raped by several men at the fraternity house. She reported the incident to the Cornell University Police Department several weeks later, but no criminal charges were filed.
At the heart of the criticism has been the revelation that the woman, in her statements to the police, said that she could say “with 100 percent confidence I was raped.” Mr. Van Houten has said that his office primarily reviewed a six-page report provided by Cornell police, which omitted the definitive language detailed in an transcription of her interview with investigators.
Lawyers for at least three of the seven men named in Jane Doe’s lawsuit have issued statements denying criminal wrongdoing. In hours of interviews during a university investigation in the winter of 2024, the seven men denied wrongdoing. Four said they had consensual sexual interactions with Jane Doe; three denied participating in sexual encounters altogether.
On Thursday morning, The New York Times, after obtaining more than 1,000 pages from the university’s internal inquiry, published a detailed account of the woman’s weeks of struggle before she reported the episode.
Ms. Hochul had previously struck an agreement with Michael I. Kotlikoff, Cornell’s president, that the university would hire outside lawyers to begin an independent investigation.
In a statement on Thursday, Ms. James said that the case would be investigated “fully and fairly.” Mr. Van Houten did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
With her appointment, Ms. James may “prosecute any offenses arising from that investigation” and present evidence to a grand jury, Ms. Hochul said in a statement.
Thomas Giuffra, the woman’s lawyer, said the announcement was “wonderful news” during an interview on NewsNation’s “Cuomo” late Thursday.
“My intention tomorrow, first thing, was to write a letter requesting that Governor Hochul appoint a special prosecutor because my client and I had zero confidence in this district attorney’s ability to prosecute,” Mr. Giuffra said.
Mr. Van Houten has defended his office’s work. In a statement this week, he said that the original statement the woman gave to police did not seem to warrant criminal charges.
“Jane Doe’s sworn statement in November of 2024 did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped,” he said.
Stefanos Chen and Caitlyn Freeman contributed reporting.