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A former West Point cadet drugged his then-girlfriend in his barracks, gave her abortion pills against her will and induced a miscarriage. He went on to study at two Ivy League universities, starting at one after pleading guilty to assault, according to court records and a new trial.
The man, Caleb Suh, graduated from Cornell University this year and was a public health graduate student at Columbia University on Oct. 28 when the woman filed the lawsuit in a New York court. His current status at Columbia is unclear.
The suit brought attention to a case that had played out quietly at West Point and in federal court, where Suh pleaded guilty last June to the March 2022 assault of a cadet in his junior class. She was 19 and in her second year at the U.S. Military Academy, according to prosecutors.
She wanted to have the baby. Suh didn’t do it. Instead, he told the judge, he posed as the woman to open an online pharmacy account, ordered abortion medications, obtained Xanax from a friend to use as a sedative and tricked his girlfriend into drinking what she thought was just a prenatal protein shake. After waiting for her to fall asleep, he administered the abortion pills orally and vaginally.
According to the woman’s lawsuit, Suh left her alone and incapacitated and ignored her attempts to contact him after she woke up and realized she was bleeding. She called 911 and was hospitalized.
While she was being treated, Suh returned to the online pharmacy’s website to ask about whether doctors could detect the pills, according to the lawsuit, first reported by The New York Times.
“She suffered a life-changing event that she is still dealing with and will for the rest of her life,” her attorney, Russell Kornblith, said by phone Monday. His suit against Suh seeks unspecified damages.
Suh, who is awaiting sentencing, told the court in June that he was “deeply and immeasurably sorry for my actions and the pain I have caused.”
His attorney, Thomas Kenniff, declined to comment Monday.
The lawsuit, which the woman filed under the pseudonym Jane Doe, comes amid a national review of how universities handle student misconduct complaints. Cornell, in particular, has faced criticism since a former student’s lawsuit alleged that several men raped her at a fraternity house in 2024 and that the university did too little after she filed the complaint.
In Suh’s case, it’s unclear what discipline, if any, he faced at West Point. The woman reported him to the Army Criminal Investigation Division in May 2022, according to her lawsuit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia Cohen said in court in June that Suh told a West Point investigator that the woman’s miscarriage was accidental, denying ordering abortion medications.
The military academy did not provide any information Monday about the findings or results of the investigation.
Suh was criminally charged in Manhattan-based federal court in June, according to court records.
In the meantime, he transferred to Cornell in the 2023-2024 school year. New York-based Ithaca University said in a statement Monday that he answered “no” to an application question asking whether he had been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at a previous educational institution. West Point indicated he was performing well academically and was eligible to return, Cornell said.
Cornell websites say he was recognized for his writing in spring 2024 and that he became involved with the Cornell Center for Health Equity, a research group. He wrote on his site that he was interested in “the intersection of emergency medicine, addiction, and public health” and wanted to become a doctor.
Suh also worked briefly at Cornell’s medical school, which she left several months ago, the university said. He is credited among the authors of a medical journal article summarizing a 2025 conference on cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Last September, Suh began a master’s program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York, his lawyer wrote to the judge overseeing Suh’s federal case.
Columbia declined to comment Monday, citing educational privacy laws.
A person familiar with the matter, but not authorized to comment publicly, said Mailman applicants are not asked about their criminal records, but are asked whether they have ever been disciplined for student conduct violations or poor academic performance. Suh’s application never mentioned disciplinary proceedings, the person said.
At the request of Suh’s attorney, his sentencing was recently postponed until January so he could finish his semester at Columbia. He also completed a three-month life skills course for people charged with federal crimes, Kenniff told the court in a letter last month.
Prosecutors did not object to the postponement. They declined to comment Monday.
The woman’s attorney declined to say whether she ultimately graduated from West Point or what she was currently doing.
“We hope that by our client filing this lawsuit, it will at least ensure that this never happens to anyone else,” Kornblith said.
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