Prosecutors in upstate New York are defending their decision not to bring charges in 2024 after an alleged “gang rape” at a Cornell University fraternity.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten described the allegations as “morally disturbing” but argued that the facts he knew at the time did not support a prosecution.
“If what was said on social media about this case was true, those fraternity members would be in prison right now,” Van Houten told ABC News.
Van Houten argued that Jane Doe’s account of the incident from 2024 suggested that she consented to the sexual activity. He said that she did not withdraw her consent, and that when she raised concerns, the fraternity members “stopped and did not pursue what they were doing.”
“She clearly consented in the beginning, and there was never any indication that she changed that to the things that she participated in,” he said. “There is a disconnect in the sense of how the community and how social media has understood this to have happened. If at any point Jane Doe had said, ‘I don’t consent to this anymore,’ or in those words, or in any form of communication. If there had been continued sexual activity, contact by these individuals, that would be a crime. But that’s not what was alleged in her statement.”
Van Houten acknowledged that his office did not examine a photo of the fraternity’s Snapchat group, but he argued that the messages do not change his view of the case.
DA defends decision not to prosecute alleged Cornell ‘gang rape’ case in 2024
