A reopened legal investigation into gang rape allegations at Cornell College will probably be led by a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who oversaw high-profile intercourse crimes circumstances towards music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and vogue govt Peter Nygård, New York Lawyer Common Letitia James introduced on Wednesday.
Jacqueline Kelly, a Cornell alumna and accomplice on the legislation agency Boies Schiller Flexner, will function outdoors counsel for James’ investigation, which was spurred by a former pupil’s allegations in a September lawsuit that a number of males raped her at a fraternity social gathering in October 2024.
Kelly and a group of legal professionals and investigators from her agency and the legal professional normal’s workplace will probably be answerable for gathering proof, interviewing witnesses, reviewing investigative information and stories, and analyzing the information and relevant legislation, James stated.
They are going to report back to James, who was appointed final month by Gov. Kathy Hochul as a particular prosecutor overseeing the Cornell probe. James, a Democrat, made the announcement a day after profitable election to a 3rd time period.
Individually, two males named as defendants within the former pupil’s lawsuit need the legal professional normal faraway from the investigation. They argue James is biased due to a social media put up she made earlier than her appointment that expressed assist for the accuser. A choose has but to rule.
“Jacqueline Kelly is a seasoned prosecutor who has overseen quite a few circumstances from investigation by way of trial,” James stated in an announcement. “Along with her legal authorized experience, dedication to public service, and judicial expertise, I’m assured that she’s going to lead a good and complete investigation.”
Kelly, a Columbia Regulation College graduate, was a prosecutor within the Manhattan U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for practically a decade and led the civil rights unit within the workplace’s legal division. She oversaw investigations and prosecutions of civil rights offenses, voting rights violations, intercourse crimes and hate crimes.
She left final yr to affix Boies Schiller Flexner and can stay on the agency whereas she conducts the Cornell investigation.
“All New Yorkers deserve a good and thorough inquiry into the information of this case,” Kelly stated. “I look ahead to lending my years of expertise as a federal prosecutor to the Workplace of the Lawyer Common as we study all accessible proof.”
Hochul appointed James as particular prosecutor on Oct. 1, saying she had misplaced religion within the native prosecutor, Tompkins County District Lawyer Matthew Van Houten, who declined to carry prices in 2024.
Van Houten stated he would restart the investigation following the previous pupil’s lawsuit, however a lawyer for the accuser stated the district legal professional was making ready to carry the matter to a grand jury inside two weeks.
James has stated her investigation will take months.
Seven Cornell College college students are accused of drugging and raping a fellow pupil at a Chi Phi social gathering in 2024.
The previous Cornell pupil, recognized in court docket papers as Jane Doe, alleged in her lawsuit that a few of the males pressured her into utilizing ketamine and marijuana and that she drank alcohol that left her too intoxicated to consent. A couple of weeks later, she stated, she made stories to campus police and the college’s Title IX workplace.
The case roiled the Ivy League establishment, elevating questions on how universities, police departments and native prosecutors reply to campus sexual assaults.
Final month, Cornell employed former U.S. Deputy Lawyer Common Sally Yates to assessment how the varsity investigates sexual assault and sexual harassment, how the disciplinary course of works, the campus police response and extra.
As a federal prosecutor, Kelly supervised the prosecutions of former Manhattan neurologist Ricardo Cruciani, who killed himself in jail whereas awaiting trial on federal prices after his conviction in state court docket for molesting sufferers, in addition to Bronx music trainer Jesus Concepcion, who was sentenced in 2024 to 30 years in jail for sexually abusing 5 college students. She additionally took on the mafia, prosecuting a dozen members of the Lucchese crime household.
The varsity’s president introduced a ban on all events and social occasions at fraternity homes by way of the tip of the educational yr. It comes throughout the ongoing controversy of gang rape allegations at a fraternity home. NBC New York’s Chris Glorioso stories.
At Boies Schiller Flexner, she focuses on regulatory and legal investigations and represents victims of sexual assault and different crimes. The agency, co-founded by lawyer David Boies, is thought for representing victims of the late Jeffrey Epstein, in addition to company purchasers together with Amazon and the defunct well being know-how firm Theranos.
James, whose workplace is geared towards civil litigation and client safety, has turned to outdoors counsel up to now to help in investigations.
In 2021, she appointed two outdoors legal professionals, former Manhattan U.S. Lawyer Joon Kim and employment lawyer Anne Clark, to conduct a non-criminal investigation into sexual harassment allegations towards then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, resulting in his resignation. Cuomo denied the findings of their report.
