STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let's warn you right at the start that our next story describes sexual violence.
New York prosecutors are reopening a criminal investigation into an alleged sexual assault involving students at Cornell University.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
A former Cornell student says she was drugged and gang-raped at the school in 2024, and no criminal charges were filed at the time. Two weeks ago, she filed a lawsuit with new allegations against Cornell and seven male students. The brutal details of the case have drawn condemnation around the world and shaken the small college community in upstate New York.
INSKEEP: NPR's Brian Mann is in Ithaca this morning near the Cornell campus. Brian, good morning.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: Why would it take so long for prosecutors to reopen a case from 2024?
MANN: Well, the DA here, Matthew Van Houten, says the woman in this case gave a statement two years ago to Cornell campus police, where she described a drug- and alcohol-fueled party at the Chi Phi fraternity house. Van Houten says according to her statement then, she took part voluntarily. But in the civil lawsuit filed this month, she recounts a horrific ordeal where she was pressured to drink and take drugs until she was incapacitated, then violently raped by these seven men over a period of hours. The prosecutor says after learning of those details, he now expects to present this case to a grand jury.
INSKEEP: OK. So she's given a different description, and this gives prosecutors more to go on, is what you're saying. What are women in the Cornell community saying about all this?
MANN: I'm hearing anger, Steve, that this case wasn't investigated more thoroughly at the time and also frustration that more hasn't been done to change campus culture here. Kat Martin graduated last year. She says she, too, was sexually assaulted at Cornell.
KAT MARTIN: It was normalized to experience violence. It was normalized to worry about being drugged.
MANN: And I also spoke with Olympia Hall. She's a current Cornell student. She's co-president of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Safety Club on campus. She says Cornell has tried to improve campus safety, but she says she still sometimes feels vulnerable. And she told me fraternities on campus hold a lot of sway over students' social life.
OLYMPIA HALL: That is a cultural aspect that creates a lot of power dynamics that are uncomfortable and lead young men to potentially not think about their actions.
MANN: And, Steve, NPR attempted to reach out to these young men who are named in this lawsuit for their comment without success.
INSKEEP: Brian, I saw something on social media about the men allegedly involved being told to write essays as punishment. Could that possibly be true?
MANN: Well, the lawsuit says some of the men who allegedly raped the woman were allowed to write essays in order to lessen or mitigate any disciplinary action by Cornell. In a statement, Cornell says there were consequential punishments for the men involved, but the university declined our request for an interview to clarify what that means. It's also unclear whether any of these men are still students at the university.
Cornell's handling of this case, Steve, is also drawing scrutiny because the rape allegations were only investigated back in 2024 by campus police. Local police issued a statement yesterday saying they were never notified about this alleged assault. Ithaca's mayor, Robert Cantelmo, is a Cornell alum, and he issued his own statement yesterday blasting Cornell's leadership for failing to coordinate this investigation with city police. Cantelmo's now pushing for a moratorium on student events, including Greek fraternity and sorority activities, until Cornell comes up with a new plan to keep students safe.
INSKEEP: NPR's Brian Mann in Ithaca, New York. Brian, thanks so much.
MANN: Thank you, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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