A US prosecutor on Monday, September 28, reopened an investigation into an alleged gang rape committed in 2024 by students at Cornell University in New York state, a case which at the time had not resulted in prosecution.
In a recent civil complaint, the victim, a 20-year-old student at the time of the incident, claims to have been drugged and raped by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity – an all-male student organization – at this elite university.
Widely relayed and commented on online, the complaint sparked an avalanche of reactions from people who were surprised that no legal action was launched when the victim first reported it to the police.
In a press release, Matthew Van Houten, Tompkins County prosecutor, justified himself on Monday for not having prosecuted the perpetrators in 2024 because the victim’s testimony did not then establish a lack of consent.
“Rape culture”
To support his statements, he reproduces the statements made at the time by the latter. Upon reading the new complaint, however, he believes he must reopen the investigation and is now considering criminal proceedings against the seven men.
“I recognize that it can take years of therapy and reconstruction for victims of sexual assault to fully understand and appreciate what happened to them,” adds Matthew Van Houten in his press release.
Kyle Kimball, Cornell spokesperson, assured his side that the university supported the decision to reopen the investigations. He also points out that the fraternity to which the alleged perpetrators belonged was closed and that a series of disciplinary sanctions were taken against them, going “up to exclusion and suspension” from Cornell.
Reacting to this affair, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a rising figure among Democrats, denounced during a meeting on Sunday a “rape culture” in elite establishments. The plaintiff, “this survivor, is finished with her studies, because you can’t stay at university when something like this happens to you,” she said, accusing the institution of having “protected” them.
With AFP
