{"id":362754,"date":"2026-10-02T11:16:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T11:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362754\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T11:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T11:16:21","slug":"how-voluntary-intoxication-loophole-impact-cornell-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362754\/","title":{"rendered":"How voluntary intoxication loophole impact Cornell case"},"content":{"rendered":"

As new developments continue to come out of the Cornell rape investigation<\/a> in Ithaca, a loophole in the law is potentially impacting this case and others.<\/p>\n

Critics call it the voluntary intoxication loophole. It makes it more difficult to prosecute sexual assault cases, at least the way the law is currently written in New York state.<\/p>\n

But the case from Cornell University is prompting calls and action to close the loophole.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think prosecutors generally are of the principle that they are not going to indict cases that they don’t believe they have proof beyond a reasonable doubt,\u201d said Rochester attorney and former judge John DeMarco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He is weighing in on the case from Cornell University that is making national news and stirring up social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really becomes an issue of fact for a judge or a jury to determine, ‘hey, did these defendants have a reason to know that this victim was intoxicated to such a degree that she lacked the mental capacity to consent?’\u201d said DeMarco.<\/p>\n

The way the law stands now in New York, if a person becomes voluntarily intoxicated \u2014 choosing to drink and\/or do drugs \u2014 then that person cannot be considered mentally incapacitated to give consent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ones that I think are really abiding by the principle are looking beyond that. Can they get a verdict beyond a reasonable doubt? And I believe this prosecutor determined based upon the voluntary intoxication, that that was unlikely,\u201d said DeMarco.<\/p>\n

A Jane Doe alleges she was sexually assaulted by several current and former students at a Cornell frat house in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe time is now and we are ready to do this. New York needs this, our survivors need this, and we deserve to give it to them,\u201d said State Sen. Nathalia Fernandez.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now lawmakers are calling for a change in the current law. The legislation, sponsored by Fernandez and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, would allow prosecutors to focus on whether the victim was capable of consenting, rather than how they became intoxicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, right now those who commit sexual assaults on someone who\u2019s voluntarily intoxicated, they have a get out of jail free card and we\u2019ve got to end that,\u201d said Dinowitz.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the prosecutor’s standpoint, if that law is in effect, what they’re proposing now, he could colorably believe that he could get a verdict of guilty,\u201d said DeMarco.<\/p>\n

The proposed bill argues that a reasonable person in the defendant’s position should have known the victim was incapable of controlling their behavior or expressing a lack of consent.<\/p>\n

With the New York State Legislature currently out of session, legislators are calling for the measure to be made a priority to tackle as soon as it reconvenes.<\/p>\n

New York is one of about 19 states that define mental incapacitation strictly through involuntary intoxication.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several other states have made changes to their sexual assault laws to close the voluntary intoxication loophole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As new developments continue to come out of the Cornell rape investigation in Ithaca, a loophole in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[257,4275,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,87,308,115,200,1839],"class_list":["post-362754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-central-ny","tag-local-politics","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-public-safety","tag-rochester","tag-vod","tag-wendy-wright"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362754","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=362754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}