Attorneys for former fraternity member Winston Lee filed a criminal court motion asking a judge to

Attorneys for former fraternity member Winston Lee filed a criminal court motion asking a judge to disqualify New York Attorney General Letitia James from investigating a 2024 sexual assault case at Cornell University, citing statements she made before her appointment as special prosecutor.

Attorneys Teny Geragos, Marc Agnifilo, and Jacob Kaplan argued in their Tompkins County filing that public remarks made by James before she was named special prosecutor showed she had prejudged the matter. The legal push to remove the attorney general follows her appointment by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who tapped James to oversee the criminal inquiry after Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten decided not to pursue charges in November 2024. Geragos pointed to social media posts where James wrote that what the accuser had endured was horrific and unacceptable and told survivors, You’re not alone. We stand with you. Legal teams for the defendants argue those statements render James unfit to conduct an impartial review, according to NBC News.

Winston Lee and Gillio Lopes Challenge the Special Prosecutor

Winston Lee’s court filing represents the second formal effort by a defendant to sideline the state’s top prosecutor. Earlier in the week, lawyers representing Cornell defendant Gillio Lopes filed a separate civil court motion asking a judge for identical relief: the dismissal of James from the case. An October 29 hearing has already been scheduled in Lopes’ case, where the attorney general’s office is expected to argue that the governor’s appointment should stand.

Both Lee and Lopes are among seven former members of the Xi chapter of Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity named in a civil lawsuit filed in September by the woman known in legal proceedings as Jane Doe. The 101-page complaint alleges that the men drugged and sexually assaulted her in October 2024, and that both Lee and Lopes performed drugs off her body during the assault.

New York Laws Create Hurdles for Criminal Prosecution

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten previously declined to prosecute after examining a six-page statement provided by the accuser in November 2024, concluding that the facts presented did not support a prosecutable crime, meaning the renewed criminal investigation faces statutory hurdles under current New York state law.

Legal experts note that New York’s strict definition of physically helpless requires a complainant to be unconscious or physically incapable of communicating unwillingness. Erin Murphy, a professor at NYU School of Law, explained in an interview with NPR that voluntary intoxication combined with mental incapacitation often falls short of the legal threshold if the individual remains conscious or capable of making sounds. While lawmakers in Albany previously passed Senate measures to broaden the legal treatment of intoxication, those bills stalled in the Assembly, prompting the creation of a 15-member working group to review the state’s sexual assault statutes ahead of the 2027 legislative session.

Cornell Administration Acknowledges Student Anger as Legal Battles Continue

Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff acknowledged the deep frustration during a meeting with the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, telling students that administration members shared their anger over the unfolding details. Meanwhile, university officials maintain that Cornell welcomes the new investigations, even as legal teams for the accused fraternity members fight to dismantle the special prosecutor’s appointment in court ahead of an October 29 hearing.