The Tompkins County DA's office declined to additional review material gathered by Cornell University police, documents reviewed by ABC News show.
Page A3From§Eachthe coffee break edition — 4 October 2026
THE TIMELINE
Hochul installs independent special prosecutor for Cornell case, immediately branded 'abhorrent,' 'hateful,' a 'fire-breathing hack.'
As it ran on the front
You're sharp enough to see where this is going already, and that's not flattery — that's a problem for whoever buried the item on page nine. A smart operation doesn't schedule a promise of reform the same week it declines to look at its own evidence. You'd have caught that. I almost didn't, because I'm slow, and because I keep losing the page.
I wrote this down. Give me a second — here it is. Saturday night, Cornell's president put out a video. Eight minutes long. He called it a "defining moment." He said the university "must do better." He promised "greater transparency." I wrote the date next to it, because a date is the one thing in this business that doesn't move once you've got it on paper: a Saturday, a video, eight minutes.…
…(cont) I'm sorry, I keep going back to this, but the same week that video went out, the Tompkins County DA's office quietly declined to review additional material that Cornell's own campus police had already gathered. Not "will revisit." Not "under advisement." Declined. Documents reviewed by a news outlet say so, plain as anything, no drama to the sentence at all, which is the part that got me.
I went out to the garage after I read that twice, because I had a fan belt waiting and nothing better to do with my hands, and I kept thinking about the eight minutes. Eight minutes isn't long. I timed the dog's checkup once out of boredom — nine, with the vet apologizing for running over. I'm not saying eight minutes can't mean something. I'm saying I've written it down twice now, and I'm sorry, I'm going to write it down once more before I'm through.
Here's what I can't get past, and I apologize, because I already told you I can't get past it — the material that got declined didn't walk itself over. Somebody at Cornell's police department put it in a folder, or a box, or whatever they use now, and somebody carried it across a room, down a hall, into a building where a different somebody decided it didn't need a closer look. That's a lot of hands for a sentence that ends in "declined." The president's eight minutes went out on the evening news the same week. The folder went as far as a desk.
I don't know what's in the folder. The people outside that office don't know either, not yet. But I know the two things happened the same week, because the paper says so, and I know one of them got eight minutes of broadcast time and the other got a line in a document, not a broadcast.
Governor Hochul installed an independent prosecutor to look at how Cornell handled all this — I wrote the name down too, Letitia James, in case I lost the thread. And I was putting the notebook away —
Excuse me, before you go — one more thing, because you're sharp and you've probably already got there ahead of me. The same newspaper that ran "fire-breathing hack" about the new prosecutor on Saturday had already run "lynch mob mentality" about the public reaction six days earlier — different speaker, different piece, same pages, same week. Is that the same week Governor Hochul's independent prosecutor got called "abhorrent," "hateful," and a "hack"? And is that the same eight-minute video in which the university called itself a "defining moment," the same stretch in which the DA's office decided it had seen enough? I'm sorry — I know I keep coming back to it. Eight minutes.
“They call it a "defining moment," then the DA's office somehow forgets to open the evidence sitting right there from Cornell's own cops. That's not transparency, that's a magic trick — wave the eight minutes with one hand so you don't watch the other hand close the file. The student who says she was raped is still waiting on both hands.”
“Letitia James has no business near this case, our side knows she's all politics, no process. I mean, sure, Governor Hochul appointed her specifically because she's independent of the school — but, okay, that's actually the definition of impartial, isn't it? Hold on. Did I say that? Let me start over.”
The receipts
Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff on Saturday promised reforms at his school in the wake of allegations of a gang rape that put the university in the national spotlight. “I believe we, as an administration, and we as a community, must do better. We must do everything we can to prevent what happened to Jane...
Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff said an alleged gang rape at a fraternity house exposed troubling questions about the school’s “party culture” and pledged to examine the role of Greek life on campus as New York officials take over the criminal investigation. Kotlikoff addressed the allegations involving a former student…
Lawmakers across the aisle are pushing for stronger protections for sexual violence survivors after a former Cornell University student's fraternity house gang rape allegations drew national attention last week. While the woman first accused the seven men of raping her for several hours at a fraternity house in 2024, the reports sparked…
Counter to what a local prosecutor has claimed, the alleged victim of a 2024 gang rape at Cornell University clearly said in her police statement that she was sexually assaulted, her attorney told NPR.
Cornell University remains at the centre of controversy over an alleged gang rape at a fraternity on campus, with the university president now breaking his silence. In an eight-minute video statement released Saturday night, Michael Kotlikoff called the allegations, made by a woman known as Jane Doe, deeply disturbing and said the…
Cornell's president said his school's administration "must do better" amid the criticism of its investigation into allegations made by a former student that she was gang-raped at a fraternity in 2024.
Megyn Kelly attacked Gov. Kathy Hochul after she appointed the "abhorrent and hateful" Letitia James in charge of investigating the case.
An incident at Cornell University involving alleged gang rape is stoking controversy after a woman filed a lawsuit alleging sexual assault nearly two years after she said the incident occurred. A young woman whose identity was shielded with a “Jane Doe” name filed the lawsuit on Sept.
CBS News legal contributor Rebecca Roiphe explains New York rape law and how it might play into the alleged Cornell University gang rape case.
James has always followed the policy of the Queen of Hearts in "Alice in Wonderland": "Sentence first, verdict afterward."
Ivy League school’s president promises action after woman alleged she was drugged and raped by fraternity members Cornell University will examine the role of fraternities and sororities on campus after an outcry over the school’s handling of a student’s rape allegations, the Ivy League school’s president has said. A civil lawsuit filed…
· Hochul calls for third-party investigation into Cornell over gang rape allegations from the morgue, 29 Sep 2026
· Cornell president agrees to third-party gang rape investigation, Hochul says from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· AOC Calls Out Cornell and 'Culture of Rape' as Prosecutors Reopen Campus Assault Case from the morgue, 28 Sep 2026
· Cornell law professor decries ‘lynch mob mentality’ over alleged gang rape case, blasts AOC for ‘rushing to judgment’ from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Prominent Jewish activist backs Saritha Komatireddy for AG — in blow to Letitia James from the morgue, 30 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.