The attorney for the woman at the center of the Cornell gang-rape allegations says she was kept in the dark about the true status of the criminal investigation into her claims.
Thomas Giuffra, who represents the student identified in court papers as Jane Doe, said that his client was led to believe the probe was active after she reported the alleged October 2024 assault to campus police several weeks after it occurred. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten had actually decided against pressing charges within days of officers first speaking with her, Giuffra said.
Van Houten has acknowledged that he never contacted Jane Doe or her lawyer directly about his decision. Instead, he asked Cornell police to relay the message that his office would not prosecute.
“I think she was misled. She was told it was still — they weren’t going to prosecute, but they were still investigating,” Giuffra said. “I was involved with this case early on. I thought they were still investigating.
“It was news to me that they weren’t doing anything.”
Giuffra said he had assumed investigators were taking time to interview witnesses and build out their case. “But nothing was being done, and we didn’t know that,” he added.
Van Houten has defended his handling of the matter, stating that his office reviewed a six-page summary of Doe’s account written by a police officer and concluded no crime had been committed. He characterized her sexual participation and drug use that night as “voluntary, conscious and consensual,” a portrayal that stands in sharp contrast to what Doe told police and Cornell investigators at the time, and to the allegations she laid out in a lawsuit filed last month against seven Chi Phi fraternity members and Cornell University itself.
The district attorney’s account of events has come under further scrutiny amid reports that a Cornell police investigator attempted to push additional evidence to Van Houten’s office in the weeks following the reported rape, only to be turned away. Giuffra, who initially faulted campus police, revised his assessment after learning of their efforts.
“At first I thought these police were incompetent. It sounds like they were doing the right thing. And they just got shot down,” Giuffra said.
The case has since been removed from Tompkins County jurisdiction. Gov. Kathy Hochul transferred it to New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday to conduct a fresh investigation. James has indicated her probe could stretch across multiple months, a notably longer timeline than Van Houten had reportedly envisioned.
Van Houten had wanted to present the case to a grand jury and have Jane Doe testify before the panel within two weeks, according to reports. Giuffra, who had already expressed doubts about the district attorney’s capabilities, said he “didn’t think [Van Houten] was up to the task” and raised concerns about how the reopened investigation would be conducted under his oversight.
Jane Doe’s lawsuit names seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity and Cornell University as defendants. None of the fraternity brothers have been officially charged with any crimes to date.
Van Houten’s office and Cornell Campus Police did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the outlet.
The alleged assault took place in October 2024 at the Chi Phi fraternity house, where Jane Doe says she was drugged and gang-raped by multiple men. She reported the incident to campus police several weeks afterward, triggering what she understood to be an active criminal investigation. Unbeknownst to her and her attorney, that probe was effectively closed within days when Van Houten opted not to pursue charges based on the single police summary he reviewed, without speaking to Doe herself or examining additional evidence that investigators later tried to present.
Attorney General James’s investigation is expected to unfold over the coming months.