{"id":362978,"date":"2026-10-02T16:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T16:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362978\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T16:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T16:50:12","slug":"new-york-gov-kathy-hochul-and-ag-letitia-james-are-set-to-give-an-update-on-cornell-rape-case-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362978\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and AG Letitia James are set to give an update on Cornell rape case"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday that the woman who accused members of a Cornell University fraternity<\/a> of gang rape was \u201cfailed\u201d by people obligated to protect her, including police and the county prosecutor.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s claim came during a news conference in which she gave details on her decision to turn the case over<\/a> to a special prosecutor, the state Attorney General Letitia James.<\/p>\n

The governor said she made the decision after learning \u201ctroubling details\u201d about how authorities have handled the woman\u2019s claims thus far, including that the district attorney closed the case without having anyone interview the victim or anyone else involved in the alleged attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn what world does the district attorney not even interview her, or anyone else involved, or even request the full transcript?\u201d Hochul said. \u201cThis woman, this young woman, had already endured something that is utterly unspeakable. And then at every turn, she was failed by people and institutions with an obligation to protect her.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also assailed the Cornell University Police Department for not fully conveying the woman\u2019s story to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter this young woman came forward, she spoke to the police. She sat for hours and told them exactly what happened to her. And according to new reports, she could not have been clearer that she was 100% confident that she had been raped,\u201d the governor said. \u201dYet, shockingly, those words never made it into the account that the Cornell police sent to prosecutors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hochul said Thursday that she appointed<\/a> James to oversee the case because she had lost faith in the local district attorney\u2019s ability to handle it.<\/p>\n

The investigation initially was closed without charges in 2024.<\/p>\n

Last month, the woman filed a lawsuit and Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten reopened the investigation<\/a>. He has since been bombarded by criticism that he abandoned the original investigation too quickly.<\/p>\n

The attorney general will oversee the investigation and, if warranted, present evidence to a grand jury, Hochul said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued,\u201d she said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n

Van Houten didn\u2019t immediately respond to Thursday messages seeking comment.<\/p>\n

The case has roiled the Ivy League campus and raised questions about its response and the larger issue of how sexual assaults are handled on college campuses.<\/p>\n

The woman, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, told campus police in November of 2024 that she was sexually assaulted, then discussed it with the university\u2019s internal investigators as part of Cornell\u2019s disciplinary process.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit against seven fraternity brothers, the university, the Chi Phi fraternity and others alleges that she was plied with drugs and alcohol, then subjected to sexual acts by a group of men while she was partially or entirely incapacitated. One of the men sent a social media message to other fraternity members alerting them to what was happening, and inviting people to take part, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for two of the men she is suing have denied they participated in a sexual assault. One said his client hadn\u2019t touched the woman. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach the other men or their representatives have been unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

New York governors have turned to attorneys general to oversee important cases in the past.<\/p>\n

In 2018, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo appointed then-Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas as a special prosecutor to investigate Eric Schneiderman<\/a>, who resigned as New York attorney general after women accused him of violent slapping, choking and other abuse.<\/p>\n

In 2021, James oversaw a non-criminal investigation<\/a> into sexual harassment allegations against then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, leading to his resignation. Cuomo initially tried to choose who would lead the investigation into the allegations. He then allowed James to choose two independent attorneys to lead it instead.<\/p>\n

James\u2019 office also handles other criminal work and has the power under state law to investigate every death involving law enforcement in the state. But, typically, she can\u2019t initiate criminal investigations without a referral from a local district attorney, the governor or a state agency, or an appointment like the one Hochul made Thursday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story was updated to correct the spelling of Letitia James\u2019 name.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday that the woman who accused members of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[2303,134741,134742,134732,134743,6005,426,134744,398,9,24,4865,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-362978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-attorney-general-letitia-james","tag-cornell-7","tag-cornell-rape-allegations","tag-cornell-rape-case","tag-cornell-seven-rape-case","tag-cornell-university","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-letita","tag-letitia-james","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-governor","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362978","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=362978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}