US prosecutors have reopened an investigation into an alleged gang rape at Cornell University following claims the elite college failed to properly punish the men involved.
The alleged victim said in a civil lawsuit this month she was drugged with ketamine, assaulted and raped in 2024 by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity, a social club for male students.
Cornell closed the fraternity and temporarily suspended the students involved, several of whom were later expelled.
The newly-released details of the alleged incident have fueled allegations that the university was too lenient and reignited a debate over sexual assault on US campuses.
Matthew Van Houten, district attorney for Tompkins County in New York, said that he plans to file criminal charges against the seven men.
He said his office chose in 2024 not to prosecute because the victim's testimony did not establish a lack of consent, but had now decided to do so in light of her latest allegations.
"I recognize the reality that it can take years of therapy and healing for victims of sexual assaults to fully process and understand what happened to them," Van Houten said in a statement.
"Seeking justice sometimes requires us to reconsider or reopen cases when we are provided with additional evidence."
Kyle Kimball, vice president of university relations at Cornell, said the Ivy League school supports the decision to reinvestigate the case.
He also rejected a claim, made in the civil lawsuit, that the suspects were offered the opportunity to write essays to mitigate their conduct.
"Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false," Kimball said.
The 101-page civil lawsuit filed in New York gives graphic details on the alleged assault of the woman, whose identity is being protected.
Notably, it provides a screenshot of a Snapchat group message advertising "free pussy" during the incident, apparently an invitation for other fraternity members to take part.
The suit seeks financial damages from Cornell and the seven suspects, adding that the woman has suffered "severe emotional and psychological distress."
CONSENT LAWS
The reopening of the investigation into an alleged 2024 gang rape of a Cornell University student has sparked public outcry and shone a light on consent laws.
The case has also forced questions about how law enforcement and the university initially responded after the woman, then 20, reported the incident to police a few weeks after it occurred.
According to the lawsuit, the alleged victim Jane Doe went to meet a friend at the Chi Phi fraternity house on October 19, 2024, after drinking earlier in the evening. The friend, a member of the fraternity, and other members plied her with alcohol, marijuana and ketamine, an anesthetic that can cause hallucinogenic effects, and sexually assaulted her after she became incapacitated, the lawsuit alleges.
On Monday, the Tompkins County district attorney, Matthew Van Houten, said his office had reopened the case and would present evidence, including testimony from the woman, to a grand jury for possible indictment.
But as New York University Law Professor, Erin E. Murphy described in an interview, criminal investigation would have to meet the "physically helpless" standard, which she explained must take the form of, "unconsciousness or total incapacity."
"What I often find when I talk to people, especially in the course of doing this work, is, people have a lot of misconceptions about what the law actually says," Murphy went on. "The reality is, many jurisdictions have no definition of consent."
The New York law makes a distinction between sexual assault victims who became intoxicated voluntarily, as the alleged Cornell victim appears to have done – by willingly consuming alcohol or drugs, for instance – and those who were given intoxicants without their consent or knowledge. Only the latter can be considered "mentally incapacitated" and therefore unable to consent.
As a result, it can be more difficult to bring certain rape charges in a case when the victim chose to consume intoxicants, even if doing so affected their ability to agree to a sexual act, according to experts and advocates.
State Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who has sponsored legislation for years aimed at closing what he describes as loopholes in the law, is again pushing a bill that would allow rape to be charged if a perpetrator reasonably should have known a victim was unable to consent because of intoxication.
"I do think that many people have a perception that it's super easy to get arrested and charged for a sexual assault and you're just one misadvised kiss away from being incarcerated. I think that's wrong," Murphy said.
"I don't think that's borne out in the case law or the charging practices of district attorneys. I think it is far more common that what is happening in this case happens, which is something that many people have a visceral reaction to and understand to be a wrong that the legal system should be able to account for actually doesn't even rise to the level of charging, doesn't even constitute a violation of the law."
British actor Florence Pugh has voiced her anger about the case, saying she felt "uneasy and sick and anxious" after hearing about it.
"Colleges/schools/universities repeatedly fail women around the world," she wrote on Instagram.
"You build men that get taught through time and time again that they can do extreme harm and that they won't be harmed in return," Pugh said. With reports by Agence France-Presse and Reuters