The appointment of New York State Attorney General Letitia James as Special Prosecutor in the Cornell-7 gang rape case is the worst possible news for Cornell University. Not to mention its generations’ old Greek life, the 50 or more participants in this disgusting crime-that-will-live-in-infamy, and most of all, for the seven named defendants in perhaps the most egregious, or certainly the most notorious college gang rape in recent history.
James is a terror on a tear now. She is a hungry politician who aspires to bigger things, like the Governorship or Senate. Just ask former Governor Andrew Cuomo how she rolls, or President Donald J. Trump, who will tell you how she cares only about her political career. “Letitia James is a corrupt person,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “I feel bad for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake.”
She campaigned for AG on the grounds that as her first order of business she would seek Trump’s indictment, She got buckets full of them, on a nebulous real estate valuation case and another on falsely categorizing payments made to Trump’s alleged mistress Stormy Daniels. James got Trump indicted and convicted in 34 felony counts that Trump will have to litigate when he leaves office, assuming he can not appeal them away.
Ambitious, even ruthless, she happens also to be on the right side in the outrageous gang rape case. So, I am putting aside my misgivings, fairly certain she will find a legal avenue to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable in this searing case.
What makes it inexcusable is how badly it was handled when Jane Doe went to the authorities in 2024. Importantly, the victim was never interviewed by prosecutors. The local DA relied on the local police report. The cops, for their part, did a superficial, highly moralistic botch-up that effectively insured the victim would not understand the shaky legal grounds she was in, legally. The fact the prosecutor never looked the victim in the eye during those crucial early hours, never sat down face-to-face with her, is probably the reason the DA’s analysis of the victim and her complaint never received the urgency demanded.
Practically speaking, and this happens everyday in criminal law, if the District Attorney had explained New York State law to the alleged victim and explained how she may have misremembered or been too embarrassed to explain exactly what had happened this may have been a whole different story. For God’s sake she was effectively held hostage for seven hours, in and out of sleep, in and out of consciousness, helpless, exhausted, embarrassed, alone.
In anointing ruthless Ms. James, New York Governor Hochul has made probable indictments of the frat bros who wrecked their own lives as well as Jane Does’.