Evening Edition: New York AG Letitia James Takes Over Cornell Rape Investigation

0:00Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did, and have one of your assistance assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at MintMobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three month plan, equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra, feeful terms at MintMobile.com. New York State will once again investigate a rate claim surrounding the campus of Cornell

1:03University, a claim that is now alleged to have gone wildly unheated when first made two years ago. It's such a complex layered type of situation, because not only do you have that original statement in which she said it was all consensual, going against that she was raped, then you have a claim. Apparently that she says she was raped. This is the Fox News rundown evening edition. Hey Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobile now. I don't know if you've heard, but Mint's premium wireless is $15 a month. But I'd like to offer one other perk. We have no stores. That means no small talk. Crazy weather we're having. No, it's not. It's just weather. It is an introverts dream. Give it a try at MintMobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three month plan, $15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer for three months only then full price plan options available. Taxes and fee extra. See MintMobile.com in 2024. A young woman only being identified as Jane Doe charged that seven

2:07males at a fraternity house on the campus of the elite Cornell University in New York state raped her while she was intoxicated. There was supposedly investigations by both the University administration and the campus police. The university expelled some of the men alleged to have been involved. Others were suspended yet others were not sanctioned or had already left the school. And as for law enforcement prosecutors at the time said the woman didn't allege assaults, but there might have been other statements in which she did a fact now being made more public in light of a lawsuit being filed against the Ivy League school. And that has pushed New York state's governor to assign the state's attorney general as a special prosecutor to once again see if criminal charges are warranted. So far nobody has faced prosecution, but some of the men supposedly involved have had their identities divulged. And one is said to have lost his job bringing up questions about rights of both victims and the accused, especially in a venue fraught with other politicized problems, sexual assault and college campuses. This okay started basically two years

3:12ago. Fox News senior correspondent Eric Shaw is in New York. In 2024, there was a sophomore at Cornell University, a young woman, 20 years old and she's from the south and she goes to a fraternity party. And it turns out that after supposedly drinking through the evening, she's at this frat overnight and the allegations are that they're drinking. She's drunk. They're using drugs, ketamine and she claims that she was raped, raped by seven frat members of this fraternity at the time. And the lawsuit was filed just a few weeks ago and that's how this all started and all came out. After an investigation at the time, what's called a Title IX investigation at the university, but the main issue is there was no prosecution. None of the young men were or have been charged.

4:16And there are those saying that there is a huge cover up in that Cornell University tried to protect this reputation and this sort of thing. And that's where we are today. And what has recently happened is New York State Governor Kathy Huckle has appointed the Attorney General, Politician James, to be an independent special prosecutor to investigate this and investigate why charges were brought back then in 2024 and who dropped the ball? They think someone obviously dropped the ball in this case and this young woman suffered what she says she suffered. And that's where you stand today to see what's going to happen. We have had other cases in the past that have become really big lightning rods, especially in the media involving sexual assault on campus or claims of that. And I think for a lot of people, some of those old stories come back up when they hear of something else. And I think perhaps the more famous of them might have been the incident that was alleged to have happened at the University of Virginia, which turned out to be not even true. And so people have said, I think,

5:21in this case, well, no charges were filed because the story isn't corroborated or anything like that. But it also feels like this was this may have been certainly at the if I'm going to be generous here, an ineffective or incomplete investigation at the time. Something something seems to have, as you mentioned, something somewhere dropped the ball. Yeah, that's why there's such outrage and fiora on both sides on social media. You have of course people saying that they should have had charges. Of course, that this wasn't dropped. Obviously horrendous, no matter what happened. On the other side of this say, look, they think that these young men and the frat have been savage publicly unfairly. Some of them who graduated and I lost their jobs. And they're being tarnished with a brush that because they were never charged. And they obviously besides the University of Virginia, you've got the Duke. That was another one I was going to bring up. Yeah. Back then, so you have both sides just rabid on this situation. What is what is becoming

6:23clear now, though, as of today, the local district attorney of Tompkins County, Matthew Van Halton, did an interview with him on Monday. And he said, look, he that the young woman who goes by Jane Doe in the court papers, Jane Doe gave a six page written single type space, type space statement to the Cornell University police. She went over that statement with the Cornell University police. She made 20 corrections on that with the Cornell University police. And the DA says that nowhere in that does it claim that she was raped. In fact, just the opposite. That in the statement to Cornell University police, she said that she wasn't coerced. She said that it was all consensual. Basically, the sex was consensual. The drugs were consensual. She apparently had sex with two of the young men and at first. So he says the district attorney said he could not two years

7:24ago bring criminal charges against any of the young men because this woman had claimed in what he received from the Cornell University police that it was all consensual. Well, guess what? Now it comes out that there apparently is another statement that she gave Cornell University police that it was quote 100% rape that she was raped. Well, the DA says he never got that. They never they never passed that on to him. In fact, his statement is this quote, it has become clear that we were not provided the full picture by the university. The focus has been and should continue to be on the victims of my office will cooperate fully with the attorney general. So I think one of the main issues here, one of the big questions is what happened if she has a six-page statement that says it was consensual. What happened to the allegation, her allegation that no, it was rape. Was that dropped, was that hidden, was that covered up? The governor Hocal was pretty blunt today saying that she's not

8:27going to let any institution basically try to protect its reputation, basically charging at this news conference without saying it that Cornell University or the police covered this up. We'll see. We'll see what comes out of this. This is all part of the investigation. Why wasn't that statement of the young woman that she supposedly made? Why wasn't that given to the district attorney if it was he very likely could have then prosecuted this case back two years ago. We're talking with Fox News senior correspondent Eric Shaw about the lawsuit involving claims of rape that may have gone unheeded by Cornell University in New York State. On the Fox News rundown evening edition, please like, subscribe, share this podcast. We'll have more straight ahead. It almost seems as if if this should ever come to the point where someone is charged and is to be tried, those defendants would very likely want to have that other statement brought up saying that it was not that it was consensual. I mean, that would be vindicating almost or at least

9:34it could get the jury to to say we can't figure this out here. I mean, that's, it seems to be yes from what we know so far. There's, I don't want to call it. He said she said because that's I think is too simplistic, but there's a he said and or there's a she said twice almost in this case. You know, she says one thing one time and then another thing another time and a defense attorney's going to eat that up. That's that's like a you can drive a Mac truck through that gap if you're a defense attorney. Oh, you can bring up and they do this many times. I see in this in criminal cases, they say and it's pretty harsh and blunt. Were you telling the truth then or are you telling the truth now? But there's so many such a complex layered type of situation because Abbot not only do you have that original statement in which she said it was all consensual going against that she was raped, then you have a claim apparently that she says she was raped. Then you've got texts from her. One of them saying that the sex what the sex was legal or that

10:37the actually she said something to the effect of the sex was not illegal. So she is texting some of these young men saying, you know, something happened. It's it's she doesn't remember all of it some of it, but the sex was not illegal. So you've got contradictions all over the place until you get to this lawsuit, which is how it all exploded. That lawsuit just filed a couple of weeks ago naming these seven young men and suing the university and the frat and there was a bar where she went to earlier in the evening. So you have all these different conflicting elements and pieces of evidence that can be used by a defense attorney to try and impeach her credibility. The burden to prove a case in a civil lawsuit is much, you know, the bar is much lower. It's you know, we on the criminal side, we say, you know, proof beyond reasonable doubt and on the civil side, we say after a proponents of the evidence, it's possible that this could have happened.

11:38Is a lawsuit the only real resolution for this victim at this point and we're going to just go with the idea that she is a victim? Is this the best she could hope for to try to get some resolution for what she says has happened? No, I think the best she can hope for is a trial. Is that the, either the James, the Latisha James as a special prosecutor, they eventually bring charges against the seven young men and this goes to trial or the district attorney of Toppkins County in New York, who has said this he's reopened the case if he brings charges. If charges are brought against the seven young men and having it aired out in court at a trial, that I think is as of now the best that this young woman can get to bring it out, have her testimony if she testifies on the stand and this sort of thing or it may completely backfire against her, depending upon how a jury sifts through all this evidence. If the jury says, look, there's a reasonable doubt, criminal or reasonable doubt here because you have conflicting stories from her apparently,

12:42then you can't be on a reasonable doubt find these young men guilty. So you've got two tracks going, we'll have to see if and when any charges are brought against these young men. Eric Shaw, our Fox News correspondent in New York, thank you so much for being with us on the Fox News rundown. Of course, Evan. You've been listening to the Fox News rundown and now stay up to date by subscribing to this podcast at FoxNewsPodcasts.com. Listen to Add Free on Fox News Podcasts Plus on Apple Podcasts and Prime Members can listen to the show Add Free on Amazon Music and for up to the Minute News, go to FoxNews.com. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at minmoble.com slash switch.

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