NY rape law ‘loophole’ may have stifled charges in Cornell case

Resurfaced allegations of a gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity house have renewed outrage over what experts call a legal “loophole” in New York’s – and other states’ – sexual assault laws that can make it nearly impossible for survivors to seek justice if they voluntarily consumed alcohol or drugs before an assault. At issue in the Cornell case is the fact that the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, says she drank alcohol and accepted drugs the night in 2024 she alleges she was sexually assaulted for hours and advertised as “free p*ssy” by someone in a Chi Phi fraternity member group chat. The Tompkins County district attorney this week offered many words to describe Doe’s account of how the men assaulted her: disgusting, repugnant, offensive, morally reprehensible. But he did not call it a crime. “The young men who engaged in that conduct were morally wrong.