{"id":7923416,"date":"2026-10-07T15:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T21:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=7923416&preview=true&preview_id=7923416"},"modified":"2026-10-08T06:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T12:23:09","slug":"cornell-rape-student-sit-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2026\/10\/07\/cornell-rape-student-sit-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornell gang-rape accuser was \u2018misled\u2019 about criminal investigation, her lawyer says"},"content":{"rendered":"

By LEAH WILLINGHAM<\/strong><\/p>\n

ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 The woman accusing several men of raping her at a Cornell University fraternity party was \u201cmisled\u201d about the status of the criminal investigation in the weeks after she went to police, her lawyer said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Even as she took her allegations about a 2024 gang rape at the Chi Phi fraternity house through Cornell’s internal disciplinary process, the university’s police department gave her the impression that a criminal investigation was continuing, lawyer Thomas Giuffra told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

In fact, the criminal inquiry ended almost as soon as it began.<\/p>\n

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, the local prosecutor, made the decision not to go forward with a criminal case within days of the woman giving her first substantial interviews to police.<\/p>\n

Van Houten has said that he asked Cornell’s police department to convey the decision to the woman, who is referred to in court documents as Jane Doe, but never spoke personally to her or her lawyer.<\/p>\n

Giuffra said the woman was told that the criminal investigation was ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she was misled. She was told it was still \u2014 they weren\u2019t going to prosecute, but they were still investigating,” Giuffra said. \u201dI was involved with this case early on. I thought they were still investigating. It was news to me that they weren\u2019t doing anything.”<\/p>\n

Giuffra added that at the time, he assumed investigators just needed more time to speak with witnesses and build a case.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut nothing was being done, and we didn\u2019t know that,\u201d Giuffra said.<\/p>\n

A message seeking comment was left for Van Houten. Cornell\u2019s media relations office, citing pending litigation, declined to comment on behalf of the university\u2019s police department.<\/p>\n

The district attorney said in a statement last week that he was confident that no further investigation was necessary after prosecutors and criminal investigators from his office reviewed a six-page summary of the woman’s account, written by a police officer.<\/p>\n