Accuser’s suit alleges seven-hour assault at Chi Phi house
Gillio Lopes, a Cornell defendant, and Winston Lee, a second man accused in the alleged fraternity-house gang rape, have each asked that Attorney General Letitia James be removed as special prosecutor in the case against Cornell University students accused of sexually assaulting a female classmate in 2024. Both men have denied sexually assaulting the woman, who has sued them and six other men.
Sullivan County Court Judge James Farrell was scheduled to conduct a hearing on the requests Thursday at 2 p.m. EDT at the county courthouse in Monticello, N.Y., according to WAMC Radio in Albany, N.Y., and CNN. Under the rules of the hearing, Cornell defendant Gillio Lopes, who brought the case, and James’s representatives will each have 30 minutes to make their cases.
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, filed the civil suit last month. In it, she alleges she “was plied with alcohol and drugs to the point of intoxication” and raped by members of the Chi Phi fraternity house over a seven-hour span on Oct. 19, 2024.
Lawyers for the men maintain that the attorney general “has already publicly prejudged the guilt” of the seven men accused in the lawsuit, citing comments she made when assigned the post, which came years after a local prosecutor filed no charges in the case.
In a statement on X, James wrote: “To her and all other survivors: You’re not alone. We stand with you. What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable.” Shortly afterwards, Gov. Kathy Hochul issued an executive order naming James special prosecutor to investigate the case.
Attorney Andrew Miltenberg, who represents Lopes, is asking that the governor’s executive order be nullified. “It has nothing to do with it being Letitia James,” Miltenberg told CNN on Thursday. “No one who made that statement, which we think goes beyond compassion to accepting the narrative of the allegations, is the right person to restore confidence in an investigation.”