Cornell rape case prompts calls to change state's sex assault laws

Legislators have renewed efforts to change the state's rape laws to offer more protections to victims who are intoxicated when they are assaulted, in the wake of the explosive fraternity rape allegations at Cornell University.

Proponents of revamping the state's rape laws argue that it is harder to determine lack of consent in certain cases involving voluntary intoxication compared with cases where someone was given alcohol or drugs against their will.

In many cases, said Assemb. Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx), it can be more difficult to press criminal charges against a person when the victim ended up intoxicated after choosing to consume drugs or alcohol.

“If you get voluntarily intoxicated to the point where you're not in a position to give consent to sex, right now under the law, you're out of luck,” said Dinowitz, who has been pushing for changes to the law since 2019.

State Sen. Nathalia Fernandez (D-Bronx) has also advocated for change. Her spokesperson, David Montilla, said she will be reintroducing legislation in January.

“Our legislation addresses that gap by allowing prosecutors to consider lack of consent if the victim voluntarily took substances but was too intoxicated to appraise or control their conduct, and the accused knew or reasonably should have known of that incapacity," Montilla said.

But Mark Bederow, a criminal defense attorney and former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, said there are concerns that changing current laws as they relate to sexual misconduct and intoxication is not so straightforward.

“This has been kind of a hot topic for probably 10 years or so,” Bederow said. “Prosecutors have been asking for what they call the loophole to be fixed. There are very good arguments on both sides, but anybody who thinks that the law should just change and everything will be fine, it can lead to some serious injustice in the other direction potentially, too.”

'More work to be done'

The issue of consent is drawing heightened scrutiny after a former Cornell student filed a lawsuit last month alleging she was gang-raped at a fraternity house in 2024. The student alleged that she was plied with drugs and alcohol, then subjected to sex acts by a group of men while partially or entirely incapacitated.

No criminal charges were filed against the seven men that were accused of rape.

Elizabeth L. Jeglic, a researcher and psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said cases in which a person consumed intoxicating substances and became impaired might not meet the standard for prosecution. She added that people who are intoxicated without their knowledge or consent, leaving them unable to understand or control their conduct, are deemed mentally incapacitated, but that is not the case when the individual consumes the substance willingly.

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday she supports changes to the law after tapping Attorney General Letitia James to lead an independent criminal investigation into the Cornell rape case. Hochul has said that Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten and Cornell University police botched the initial investigation. 

Following public outcry, Cornell announced earlier this week it would bring in outside lawyers to independently investigate how it handled the woman’s allegations.

Colleges have improved the way they handle sexual assaults, but the allegations at Cornell show that “there's still much more work to be done,” said Wendy Linsalata, executive director of Suffolk County-based L.I. Against Domestic Violence, which provides support to survivors of sexual assault.

“We're still stuck in a cycle of looking immediately at the survivor, as to where they were wrong. ... There's still a culture of victim blaming,” she said.

Survivors of sexual assault are sometimes discouraged from pursuing charges and are told that a prosecution would “destroy the offender's life,” she said. But, she said, offenders “need to be held accountable if they committed a crime and violated somebody's basic human rights. ... The survivor will carry this with them forever. It is horrendous, and we still need to work at reframing how society as a whole looks at these things.”

At Hofstra University, officers are trained to take trauma into consideration when they take a report about an alleged assault, said Geraldine Hart, head of the Hempstead university’s public safety department and a former Suffolk County police commissioner. The department has mental health counselors on call among other measures to help students feel safe and comfortable, she said. The department works closely with Nassau County police if a sexual assault survivor chooses to report the allegations to police, she said.

“We want to make sure that the student who is going undergoing perhaps the most traumatic event in his or her life has the support that they need,” she said. “It's a very close partnership of different departments on campus that really are in constant communication.”