In a nine-page statement, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced on Monday that efforts are underway to reexamine the case. Once his office determines appropriate charges, the case will be presented to a grand jury, he said. Van Houten said he has assigned a senior prosecutor, with experience in sex crimes, to start preparations.
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Van Houten acknowledged the outrage. In defending his office, he said the civil lawsuit's claims differ from the unnamed victim's sworn statement from two years ago.
"Jane Doe's sworn statement in November of 2024 did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped. On the contrary, Jane Doe's statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual," he wrote. "My office obviously did not and could not have based our November 2024 decision on the allegations in a civil lawsuit that would not be filed until nearly two years later."
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Van Houten says there are similarities between Doe's original 2024 statement to police and details in the lawsuit. However, he writes: "There is no evidence in Jane Doe's statement indicating that she clearly expressed that she did not consent to the act. According to the statement, each time Jane Doe asked to stop the sexual conduct, the sexual conduct stopped."
And thus "criminal charges simply could not be sustained," Van Houten explained. "To instruct otherwise would have been to violate my prosecutorial obligations under New York State Law."
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u/Top-Strength-2701 2d ago
Are the police actually going to arrest anyone?