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The Ithaca Common Council voted late Wednesday night to stop issuing city permits to Cornell University and affiliated student groups, including fraternities, following widespread criticism of the Ivy League school’s handling of rape allegations made by a former student.
After hours of debate, the council voted 9-1 in favor of a moratorium, which temporarily bars Cornell from obtaining new permits for assemblies, parades and special events at the Ithaca Commons and activities requiring noise permits, citing public safety concerns.
The measure drew support from numerous Cornell students and Ithaca residents, although some graduate students raised concerns that the restrictions were overly broad and could disrupt activities unrelated to Greek life.
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One graduate student warned that the moratorium could result in canceled or delayed events, lost deposits, reduced access to venues and disruptions to conferences.
The moratorium will stay in place until Nov. 5, unless the council extends it at a later date. The measure also includes an amendment that requires Cornell to refer investigations involving sexual and violent crimes to the Ithaca Police Department, though its unclear how that will be enforced.
The moratorium comes after the student, identified as Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit in September accusing seven former Chi Phi fraternity members of drugging and raping her on the night of Oct. 19, 2024, and into the following morning.
In the lawsuit, she alleges she arrived at the frat house already intoxicated, after which the men pressured her into taking ketamine and other substances. The men have denied wrongdoing, with some maintaining the sexual activity was consensual and others denying they participated.
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The fraternity was suspended on Nov. 8, 2024, the same day Doe reported sexual assault allegations to campus police, according to Doe’s civil complaint.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who initially declined to pursue charges, has said Doe’s Nov. 2024 sworn statement did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang-raped and, instead, described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as “voluntary, conscious, and consensual.”
However, CBS New York obtained the transcript of the Cornell police interviews with Jane Doe on Nov. 14 and 15, 2024, during which she told investigators: “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped.”
Van Houten said he was never provided the full transcript. Late last month, he announced his office was reopening the case because the allegations contained in Jane Doe’s lawsuit differed from her sworn statement nearly two years earlier.
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In an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Jane Doe’s lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, said Cornell police led her to believe the criminal investigation remained active even though Van Houten had decided against filing charges just days after she first spoke with investigators.
Van Houten has said he instructed Cornell police to inform Jane Doe that charges would not be pursued, but acknowledged he never spoke directly with her or her attorney.
Gov. Kathy Hochul effectively took the investigation out of Van Houten’s hands on Oct. 1, by appointing Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor on the case.
“Newly released information continues to raise serious questions about the investigation conducted by the Cornell Police Department and the decision by the Tompkins County District Attorney not to prosecute an alleged sexual assault on Cornell University’s campus in October 2024,” Hochul said in a statement.
She added: “This has, in turn, undercut my faith, and the public’s faith, in the District Attorney’s ability to effectively investigate and prosecute the case at this time.”
On Wednesday, one of the men named in Jane Doe’s lawsuit petitioned a court to remove James from the case, accusing her of bias over a social media post she made days before her appointment in which she called what Doe allegedly endured “horrific and unacceptable,” The Associated Press reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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