New York Governor Kathy Hochul has appointed Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor in an alleged Cornell University rape case, saying she had “lost faith” in the local investigation.
The case centres on a woman who claims she was raped by seven fraternity members. Ms Hochul said newly released information had raised serious questions about how the investigation was handled by the Tompkins County District Attorney’s office.
“I’ve lost faith in the Tompkins County District Attorney’s ability to fairly oversee it,” the Democratic governor said.
She added: “The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued.”
The decision followed the release of a transcript of the woman’s interview with Cornell police. In it, she said she had been drinking and taking drugs on the night in question, and had gaps in her memory.
The woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, distinguished between sexual activity she initially accepted and what she said happened later. Asked whether she had been comfortable with the first encounter, she replied: “Yeah, as much as I can be, because again, I was super drunk when I got there… But I was pretty OK with all of this.”
She then added: “And then, of course, I was being hit at the same time.”
Jane Doe said she could not remember the end of the night “where I was raped” and did not know exactly how many people had sex with her. But she told the investigator: “I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped.”
During the interview, she described swatting away one man’s hand and telling him she was uncomfortable. She also said she told another man “no” several times, or that she was too tired to have intercourse.
When the investigator asked whether her words had been “no” or “eh, I’m tired?”, she replied: “I think it’s ‘I’m tired.’”
Later, when asked whether she had become tired of answering the men’s questions and ultimately given in, she replied: “Yes. It was coercion, yes,” adding that she had been “completely and totally incapacitated.”
The investigator recorded her account, read it back to her and asked her to make corrections or clarifications. On the second day of the interview, she reviewed a revised six-page statement and said: “I’m very confident about this.”
