Public backlash continues after a civil lawsuit alleged that seven fraternity members drugged and sexually assaulted a Cornell University student in 2024.
CBS News New York reported Wednesday that it had obtained a transcript of an interview between a Cornell University Police Department (CUPD) investigator and the alleged victim, referred to as Jane Doe.
According to reporting from CBS, the transcript shows that Doe told the investigator “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped."
The Tompkins County district attorney reopened the case this week. Now, he says “if factual, it [the transcript] certainly would have changed our investigation” in 2024.
Van Houten previously said that the 2024 statement taken by police did not include allegations that constituted a crime.
He said he is in the process of getting that transcript from Cornell. He says he does not know when he will get the transcript from the university “or if Cornell will resist turning it over.”
“If it’s factual, we absolutely should have been informed about what Jane Doe said to police that was not in her 6 page statement,” he said in an email to WSKG.
According to Van Houten, the transcript is part of the confidential Title IX case related to the allegations of sexual assault on Cornell’s campus.
The case was investigated by CUPD. According to the university’s website, the department is “a unit of the university, and its officers are sworn Tompkins County deputy sheriffs whose duties include the enforcement of law and order on Cornell property.”
The Ithaca Police Department released a statement earlier this week saying the department was not informed of the case and “learned of these allegations recently through the media.”
