Allegations that a Cornell University student was gang raped by a group of men at a fraternity house in 2024 have led to widespread, online speculation about what school officials, police and prosecutors did and didn’t do, as well as biting criticism that no criminal charges were brought.
The woman brought the allegations back into the spotlight in a lawsuit filed last month against seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity, the university and others. That led the Tompkins County district attorney, Matthew Van Houten, to reopen the criminal investigation. He initially had declined to prosecute, saying he had no evidence that the woman was raped or drugged against her will.
Several of the men have denied that they engaged in any nonconsensual sex or denied they touched the woman at all.
On Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced she was appointing the state attorney general as a special prosecutor to take over the probe.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
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CLAIM: The woman never told police she was raped; that allegation appeared only in the new lawsuit
THE FACTS: Misleading. While the woman told police that she consented to an initial sexual encounter with two of the men, she said she was not comfortable with what happened later, when she alleged other men began entering the room.
“Yes. It was coercion, yes,” she told a campus police officer, according to a transcript obtained by CBS News.
The woman also told campus police she was “completely and totally incapacitated” before some of the sexual abuse. The woman acknowledged she had been drinking alcohol and used drugs the night she visited the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024, and that she had gaps in her memory.
She said at least one the men hit her during the attack, which lasted several hours. “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped,” according to the transcript.
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CLAIM: Cornell didn’t follow up on the woman’s allegations.
THE FACTS: False. When the woman made her report in 2024, the school immediately suspended Chi Phi, which remains barred from campus, suspended some of the students alleged to be involved and conducted its own investigation.
The inquiry included 50 interviews with 32 witnesses and 12 days of hearings. Both the woman and several of the men she had accused were interviewed. An investigative panel produced a 99-page report outlining its findings, according to documents filed in court and reviewed by The Associated Press.
The review ended with some students being expelled or suspended, school officials said. But they have declined to provide details on the expulsions and suspensions, citing federal privacy laws.
Cornell also formed a task force on campus sexual assault after the woman reported that she was assaulted. The panel issued recommendations earlier this year, several of which have been implemented while others are in development, school officials said.
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CLAIM: Cornell’s only punishment was making the accused write essays.
THE FACTS: Misleading. The university says it expelled some of the students, but hasn’t said how many. But some people who were accused of sexual assault, but found not responsible of that allegation by the university, were ordered by the school to write essays or take classes to discipline them for other behavior.
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CLAIM: The prosecutor closed the case without ever speaking with the victim or reading a transcript of her police interviews.
THE FACTS: True. Van Houten said his decision to not prosecute the case was based on the statement prepared by campus police and signed by the woman. The statement was a summary of the two days of interviews with her. He said he did not get a copy of a full transcript of the interviews.
He said the statement did not include the woman’s comments that she was sure she was sexually assaulted. He said it did not contain any allegations of her being drugged against her will or forced into sex acts, so he concluded there was no criminal case. Van Houten has said he believed the woman’s statement, as relayed by the police, was detailed enough that he didn’t see a need for more investigation.
Van Houten also said neither the woman nor her attorney contacted him about reconsidering the decision not to prosecute.
The district attorney said the information he received from campus police appeared at the time to be a comprehensive account of the woman’s allegations.
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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.
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