Thomas Giuffra, the attorney for a woman who alleges she was gang-raped by Cornell University fraternity members, said Tuesday he may ask a judge to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the case.
Giuffra, who represents the woman in a civil lawsuit filed earlier this month against seven men and the school in Ithaca, New York, told The Post that Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten’s “defensive posture” was “regrettable.” The plaintiff lawyer questioned whether the DA’s office “is the best investigative office to handle this case.”
“I am considering requesting that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate these crimes,” Giuffra said.
The DA, who declined to charge the seven accused men two years ago, released a lengthy statement Monday alongside verbatim quotes from the accuser’s interview with Cornell campus police. The material indicated she had claimed the sex and drug abuse was consensual and that no crime occurred. Van Houten said he is reopening the investigation based on the civil lawsuit, claiming he was unaware of some of her accusations.
Giuffra said he was “surprised” that “no meaningful investigation was done” during the initial probe. The Ithaca Police Department confirmed Monday that no authorities even reported the incident to them.
“It would have been more appropriate for [Van Houten] to acknowledge the inadequate actions as opposed to engaging in the defensive posture that he has engaged in,” Giuffra said.
“Cornell Police do not handle serious crimes and are better equipped to break parties and do crowd control at football games, not conduct a major criminal investigation,” Giuffra said. “The fact that they did not follow up on the group chat and interview witnesses indicates that the department was in over its head.”
Giuffra was referring to a Snapchat exchange between fraternity members in which one said there was “free p–sy” available and another asked, “shop still open?”
Three of the named men in the lawsuit — Scott Kretzschmar, Scott Norris and Gillio Lopes — have outright denied the allegations. Another accused man, Diego Sarabia, was fired Tuesday from his banking job.
Giuffra said his client was still in shock when she went to campus police and should have been interviewed by a properly trained sex-crimes investigator. “She was reporting rape and sexual abuse,” he said of his client. “She appropriately went to the police as the victim of a crime to report what had occurred. She expected her complaints to be taken seriously.”
“Unfortunately, they were not and no real effort was made to speak to witnesses or canvas for evidence,” Giuffra added.
“There were lost opportunities to conduct a meaningful criminal investigation,” he continued. “It was left to a university police force who was unequipped to handle such an investigation.”
On Tuesday, both Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Ithaca mayor criticized Cornell for mishandling the investigation. Cornell has stated that some students were expelled as a result of its internal probe, in addition to essay punishments. Giuffra claims at least two were given the boot.
Van Houten did not respond for comment Tuesday afternoon.
The case stems from allegations that the woman was sexually assaulted by multiple fraternity members in 2024, an incident that prompted her to report to Cornell campus police but never resulted in criminal charges. The DA’s office closed its investigation without charging the seven accused men, citing the accuser’s statements to campus police that appeared to characterize the encounter as consensual. The recent civil lawsuit brought fresh scrutiny to the handling of the case, leading Van Houten to announce he was reopening the probe while simultaneously defending his office’s original decision.
The New York attorney general is also reviewing Cornell’s response to the rape allegations.