A New York prosecutor is standing by his original call not to bring charges in an alleged gang rape at Cornell that has become a high-profile national case. In interviews with ABC News and CNN, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said the original statement to police from the alleged victim in 2024 showed "vile" behavior on behalf of members and alums of Chi Phi fraternity, but did not warrant criminal prosecution. He said it wasn't clear the men acted without the woman's consent. The same woman filed a civil lawsuit last week against the university asserting she was unable to consent, and the DA's office has since reopened its criminal investigation. The woman alleges she was drugged, assaulted, and raped by seven current and former members of the now-shuttered frat.
An attorney for the woman identified as Jane Doe is pushing back against the DA's claims. "It is challenging for me to understand how a thorough criminal investigation could have been conducted when she never spoke with anyone other than the officer who took her original complaint," said Thomas P. Giuffra. In a written statement, the woman herself said that what she went through "will haunt me and be part of me the rest of my life," per NBC News. One piece of evidence that Van Houten's office apparently did not initially examine before making its decision is a photo of a Snapchat exchange in which a member of the frat invites others to join the alleged assault.
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Van Houten tells CNN that the text messages among the men, which he has since seen, "were completely vulgar and disgusting." But he adds that they might not have changed the original decision because "they had nothing to do with her consent." Campus police had the Snapchat image, according to the new lawsuit, and it's not clear when Van Houten's office received it.
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