The attorney for a woman who says she was gang raped by fellow Cornell University students in 2024 has confirmed that his client explicitly told investigators she was sexually assaulted, directly undercutting a claim made earlier this week by the local district attorney.
Thomas Giuffra, the lawyer representing the woman identified in court filings as Jane Doe, told NPR that transcripts of her 2024 sworn statement show she told police, "I can say with 100% percent confidence I was raped." When NPR asked Giuffra to confirm on the record that his client made that exact statement, he responded by text message: "Yes she did."
The confirmation, first reported by NPR, adds a significant new layer to a case that has already prompted Cornell to agree to an independent review of how it handled the allegations. It also puts new pressure on Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who publicly asserted just days ago that the woman never told authorities she had been raped.
Van Houten issued a statement Monday saying Doe never made such a claim. But by Wednesday, the prosecutor appeared to walk back the certainty of that assertion, telling NPR member station WSKG that he had not read the full account of her detailed statements to investigators — statements in which she repeatedly described being assaulted.
That admission raised immediate questions about how the district attorney arrived at his characterization of the case without having reviewed the complete record of what the woman told police. It also raised the possibility that the district attorney's office formed conclusions based on incomplete information, a prospect that could complicate any future prosecution decisions.
The discrepancy at the center of the dispute concerns the most fundamental question in the investigation: whether the woman reported a rape. According to her attorney, the transcripts leave no ambiguity. In her sworn police statement, Doe described the assault in explicit terms and expressed absolute confidence in her account, Giuffra said.
NPR sought comment from Cornell about whether the university's police department provided the district attorney with all of the information gathered during its investigation, including the woman's repeated statements about being assaulted. A university representative did not respond to that request.
The case stems from allegations that Doe was gang raped in 2024 by fellow Cornell students, an account that has drawn national attention and sparked protests over how the university and local authorities responded. In late September, Cornell agreed to an independent probe into its handling of the matter, a decision that followed mounting criticism of the school's conduct.
The timing of the independent investigation now overlaps awkwardly with the dispute emerging between the alleged victim's legal team and the local prosecutor. An independent review typically examines whether an institution followed its own policies, whether it communicated adequately with those involved, and whether its actions protected or failed to protect students. The conflicting accounts of what was reported to police could become a central issue for whoever conducts that review.
Legal observers note that discrepancies between what a survivor tells police and how prosecutors later characterize those statements can have profound consequences. Prosecutors exercise broad discretion in deciding whether to bring charges, and their public descriptions of the evidence can shape both public perception and the willingness of other victims to come forward. When those descriptions are later contradicted by transcripts or affidavits, the credibility of the office itself can come under scrutiny.
The district attorney's initial statement, published Monday on the Tompkins County website, represented a formal public position from his office. For a prosecutor to assert that an alleged victim never said she was raped — when sworn transcripts allegedly show the opposite — is an extraordinary development in a case already marked by competing narratives.
Giuffra's decision to speak to NPR and to confirm the precise wording of his client's statement reflects a deliberate effort by Doe's legal team to correct the record. By providing the direct quotation, the attorney has given the public and the media a specific, checkable claim that challenges the prosecutor's version of events.
The matter has also been covered by CBS News New York, which reported Wednesday on the transcript of an interview between the woman and investigators. That reporting, combined with NPR's confirmation from the attorney, has pushed the dispute further into public view.
Neither Van Houten nor his office immediately elaborated on why he had not reviewed the full account of Doe's statements before issuing his public statement. The district attorney's comment to WSKG that he had not read the complete details suggests a gap between the information available to his office and the public claims it made.
For Cornell, the episode compounds an already difficult period. The university has faced sustained criticism over its response to the 2024 allegations, and the independent review represents an acknowledgment that outside scrutiny is warranted. Yet the newly revealed conflict over police statements may expand the scope of questions the university and the prosecutor's office must answer.
Doe's account, as described by her attorney, centers on her certainty about what happened to her. The phrase attributed to her police statement — that she could say "with 100% percent confidence I was raped" — is unusually unequivocal for a sworn statement and stands in sharp contrast to the prosecutor's assertion that no such claim was made.
The case remains under scrutiny from multiple directions, with an independent investigation underway, a prosecutor facing questions about his public statements, and attorneys for the alleged victim pressing to ensure her account is accurately represented. How each institution resolves those competing obligations will likely determine the next phase of a case that has already drawn national attention.
(0)