A week after the reopening of an investigation by the State of New York into an alleged gang rape committed in 2024 at Cornell, the president of the American university Cornell announced on Saturday October 3 that an independent external investigation would examine the management of this affair by the establishment.
“Together with our Board of Trustees, I welcome the independent review by an external law firm into all aspects of Cornell’s handling of the 2024 matter,” President Michael Kotlikoff said in a video message posted on the university’s website.
Also readThe Cornell affair highlights the reality of sexual violence on American campuses
Details of the incident were outlined in a damning complaint filed last month, sparking strong criticism of the institution, as well as New York prosecutors who then failed to pursue any criminal charges against the alleged perpetrators.
In her civil complaint, the plaintiff, then aged 20, claims to have been drugged with ketamine and raped by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity, a male student association.
Campus police reportedly redacted part of complaint
“This week has been one of the most difficult in our history, I know many of you are angry, saddened and struggling,” Michael Kotlikoff continued. “What happened to Jane Doe in 2024 is deeply disturbing and will weigh heavily on our community for years to come.”
The criminal investigation into these facts was reopened Monday by the prosecutor of the county in upstate New York where the campus is located. New York Governor Kathy Hochul then assigned state Attorney General Letitia James to lead the investigation.
Kathy Hochul strongly criticized the way the investigation was conducted at the time, implicating both the university police and prosecutor Matthew Van Houten, already in office in 2024. “She spent hours telling (the police) exactly what had happened to her. And according to new reports, she expressed with absolute clarity her certainty that she had been raped,” said Katy Hochul.
According to several media, campus police redacted part of the complainant’s statement in which she described the events as rape.
In his video, Michael Kotlikoff said the university supports the decision to reopen the criminal investigation, while adding that Cornell “will not wait until the investigation or review is complete to act.”
#IAmJaneDoe in support on social media
Meanwhile, thousands of internet users showed their support for the alleged victim, after a political commentator threatened to reveal his identity.
Messages bearing the hashtag #IAmJaneDoe (“I am Jane Doe”) – the name used in the American legal system for women of unknown identity – spread across TikTok, X and Instagram, with Internet users going so far as to present themselves as the alleged victim to complicate her identification.
Some American media have compared this wave of support to the #MeToo movement of 2017, when a multitude of women shared their stories of sexual assault or harassment on the networks, after the revelations about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Following the rape accusations, Cornell closed the fraternity and temporarily suspended the students involved. Several of them were subsequently expelled from university.
The local authorities explained that they had decided not to prosecute in 2024 because, according to them, the complainant’s testimony did not allow them to establish the absence of consent.
One in four undergraduate students in the United States reported experiencing forced or non-consensual sexual contact, according to a 2020 Association of American Universities survey of 33 institutions.
With AFP
