launching its own civil review<\/a> of the sexual assault accusations which were brought to light when the victim, Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit last month against seven frat brothers and the university, alleging she was gang raped at the Chi Phi fraternity house on Oct. 19, 2024.<\/p>\n\u201cThe young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued,\u201d Hochul added. \u201cThis action will ensure that the matter is fully and thoroughly investigated without conflict or bias, and handled independently with the rigor that this matter demands.\u201d<\/p>\n
James\u2019 appointment as special prosecutor allows her office to investigate the matter criminally \u2014 superseding the Tompkins County DA, who announced Sunday that his office would reopen its probe into the allegations.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery New Yorker deserves to know that when they report a crime, it will be investigated fully and fairly. The Governor has entrusted my office with this investigation, and we do not take that responsibility lightly,\u201d James said in a statement Thursday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs our state\u2019s Chief Law Enforcement Officer, I stand ready to lead a process New Yorkers can trust, guided by the facts and the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chi Phi Fraternity House is pictured on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, N.Y., on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. Cornell has been the center of a growing scandal regarding sexual assault that was underreported at the Chi Phi Fraternity house in 2024. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n
Van Houten said he decided against prosecuting the case in 2024 because Doe\u2019s sworn statement to Cornell University police, while disturbing, did not accuse the male students of rape.<\/p>\n
However, a transcript of Doe\u2019s conversation with Cornell cops revealed Wednesday that she had told university cops: \u201cI can say with 100% confidence I was raped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doe was interviewed by campus police over two days in November 2024 and described how a night of partying led to her becoming \u201ccompletely and totally incapacitated\u201d before she was allegedly sexually assaulted by seven men, the transcript obtained by CBS News said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the two-day interview, Doe, who was 20 at the time, admitted a night of drinking and drugs that led to a threesome at Chi Phi began consensually but soon turned into a revolving door of frat bros allegedly coming and going to take turns having sex with her, the report said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the latest on the \u2018Cornell 7\u2019 frat probe:<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then, of course, I was being hit at the same time,\u201d Doe told police, according to the transcript. \u201cPhysically hit very, very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the men texted in a Snapchat group chat with over 50 members of Chi Phi that there was \u201cfree p\u2013sy\u201d in a room at the frat house, appearing to invite the others to join in, according to a screenshot of the exchange. His pals\u00a0leered responses like \u201cshop still open?\u201d and \u201cyou can walk in and whip it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doe recalled several men snorting ketamine off her naked body and pushing one groping hand away from her at one point, while telling the fraternity brothers at other moments she was too tired or uncomfortable to keep having sex.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Police asked Doe if it was \u201cno\u201d or \u201ceh, I\u2019m tired,\u201d to which she replied, \u201cI think it\u2019s, \u2018I\u2019m tired.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Cops then asked whether she became so exhausted from fending off the brothers that she allowed them to have sex with her, to which she responded, \u201cYes, it was coercion.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chi Phi Fraternity House is pictured on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, N.Y., on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. Cornell has been the center of a growing scandal regarding sexual assault that was underreported at the Chi Phi Fraternity house in 2024. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n
Doe also admitted to police she didn\u2019t remember the night \u201cwhere I was raped\u201d and that she didn\u2019t know how many people had sex with her while she was in that state, according to the report.<\/p>\n
The transcript raises questions about what investigators knew at the time of the alleged assault, with a separate six-page written statement signed by Doe to Cornell University Police, obtained by ABC News, showing she said the night \u201cfelt like coercion,\u201d but not clearly stating she believed to have been raped.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It appears to also contradict Van Houten\u2019s justification for not bringing criminal charges at the time because he said Doe didn\u2019t explicitly accuse the seven men of any crimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Van Houten claimed to have never received the transcript and said his decision was made based on Doe\u2019s sworn statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she had said those words, we certainly would want to have explored that more,\u201d he told CBS. \u201cLike I said, that wasn\u2019t provided to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cornell University Police told The Post \u201call investigatory information\u201d from Doe\u2019s case had been shared with the DA\u2019s office in 2024, but didn\u2019t specify if that included the transcript.<\/p>\n
In her sprawling lawsuit filed on Sept. 18, Doe slammed Cornell\u2019s internal Title IX investigation process, which involved 12 hearings \u2014 and claimed her alleged attackers only got a slap on the wrist, with just two of the seven expelled from the university.<\/p>\n
The Ithaca-based college denied Doe\u2019s claims and said the university acted in accordance with police and banned the Chi Phi frat chapter from campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Post reached out to the Tompkins County DA\u2019s Office for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul has directed New York Attorney General Letitia James to take over the criminal investigation into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6005,84036,133563,9,24,55,54,56,3018,58],"class_list":["post-362620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-cornell-university","tag-fraternity","tag-gang-rape","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-rape","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}