Tompkins County DA’s office declined to review additional material on ‘gang rape’ case from Cornell PD, docs show

Earlier than deciding a then-20-year-old Cornell pupil’s allegation she had been gang raped didn’t warrant felony fees, the Tompkins County district legal professional’s workplace declined to assessment materials gathered by college police apart from a six-page abstract of the girl’s statements, paperwork reviewed by ABC Information present.

On Nov. 25, 2024, greater than a month after a girl now generally known as Jane Doe alleged she was attacked on the Chi Phi fraternity home, Cornell College Police Division (CUPD) investigator Jeffrey Northrup contacted an investigator on the Tompkins County DA’s workplace to tell him of “interviews that had been performed by this division after I interviewed [Jane Doe],” in keeping with a word memorializing the decision.

By that point, investigators had run down nameless ideas, interviewed witnesses and contacted attorneys employed by the accused, the paperwork present.

They’d additionally issued so-called “persona non grata” notices to a number of of the fraternity brothers, informing them their presence was not welcome in components of campus.

In line with Northrup, paperwork present, prosecutors didn’t plan to pursue felony fees.

As a substitute, Northrup wrote that the investigator on the district legal professional’s workplace “knowledgeable me that he and a number of other Lawyer’s on the District Lawyer’s Workplace had learn [Jane Doe’s] assertion” and “acknowledged that all of them agreed that, primarily based on [her] assertion, felony fees wouldn’t be pursued on this case.”

That the DA’s workplace declined to assessment extra interview transcripts was first reported by The New York Instances.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul accused the district legal professional Friday of not doing the “naked minimal,” eliminated him from the case and named New York Lawyer Common Letitia James particular prosecutor.

Tompkins County District Lawyer Matthew Van Houten mentioned he supported the choice and pointed to Cornell.

“It has develop into clear that we weren’t supplied the total image by the College,” Van Houten mentioned in an announcement.

After Jane Doe went to campus police, authorities memorialized her first account: “A feminine undergraduate pupil reported that she was not too long ago raped by 8-10 males on the Chi Phi fraternity home,” the paperwork present.

The language didn’t seem within the condensed model ready by college police and given to the DA, in keeping with a duplicate obtained by ABC Information.

Hochul faulted the Cornell College Police Division for offering an incomplete narrative.

“They had been the primary ones to have the ability to interview and have their questions answered and let this younger girl inform her story. Them sending a partial document over is in my judgment, a failure,” Hochul mentioned throughout a information convention Friday.

Van Houten beforehand defended the choice to not pursue felony fees, saying the girl’s assertion, as he acquired it, didn’t allege nonconsensual sexual exercise as outlined by New York legislation. 

“If the allegations don’t set forth the weather of felony conduct beneath the New York State Penal Legislation even when we assume them to be true, we clearly can not advise the police that felony fees are acceptable,” Van Houten mentioned in an announcement.

“Moreover, we clearly don’t advise the police to vary the details or to get a witness to vary his or her assertion so that somebody may be charged with against the law. It goes with out saying that doing so could be blatantly improper and unethical,” the assertion added.

College president: ‘Should do higher’

The college mentioned in an announcement that it totally helps “the appointment of the particular prosecutor and efforts to vary New York State’s rape legislation and are dedicated to an unbiased exterior assessment of all features of how Cornell has dealt with this case.”

Later Saturday, the college launched a videotaped message from Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff. After “one of the tough weeks in our historical past,” Kotlikoff mentioned the college “should do higher.”

“What occurred to Jane Doe in 2024 is deeply disturbing and can weigh closely on our neighborhood for years to return. My coronary heart aches after I consider what she skilled. It raises heartbreaking and troubling points about sexual assault, dehumanization and features of celebration tradition, alcohol and drug use,” Kotlikoff mentioned within the message.

“We should do every thing we are able to to stop what occurred to Jane Doe, and everybody earlier than her, and anybody after her, from ever occurring once more,” he mentioned.

Kotlikoff promised this “is not going to be a second that passes.”  Relatively he known as the alleged rape of Jane Doe “a defining second” for Cornell and pledged to take “each step essential to make Cornell an establishment that leads not simply in what we are saying about these points, however within the work we do to handle them.”

Kotlikoff mentioned the college’s board of trustees will announce subsequent week which outdoors legislation agency will conduct an unbiased assessment of Cornell’s dealing with of Jane Doe’s allegations.

“We will need to have programs which might be trauma-informed and supply survivors the providers they want. We should additionally examine allegations rigorously and pretty, together with offering due course of,” Kotlikoff mentioned.

“I additionally hear the frustration that Cornell has not communicated sufficient about what the college did after the assault was reported, which has led to mistrust. There are actual authorized and privateness limits on what we are able to say. However we are going to make a better effort to clarify what we are able to, to supply context concerning the actions Cornell has taken, and to be extra clear.”