汤普金斯县地方检察官马修·范豪滕在2024年一名女子指控自己被下药并遭强奸后，决定不对康奈尔大学一个兄弟会的成员提起指控。他在接受MS NOW记者彼得·亚历山大的采访时表示，该女子接受警方询问的一份“极其令人不安”的新文字记录，“无疑有必要重新启动”调查。
Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County district attorney who declined to bring charges against members of a Cornell University fraternity in 2024 after a woman alleged she was drugged and raped, told MS NOW’s Peter Alexander that an “extremely troubling” new transcript of the woman’s interview with police “certainly merits reopening” the investigation.
这起两年前的案件本月早些时候引起全国关注：一名康奈尔大学前学生在法庭文件中仅以“简·多伊”的身份提起民事诉讼，指控自己在2024年10月于校内的兄弟会住所内，遭Chi Phi兄弟会七名成员性侵并被下药。
The two-year-old case gained national attention after a former Cornell student, identified only as Jane Doe in court filings, filed a civil lawsuit earlier this month, alleging she was sexually assaulted and drugged by seven Chi Phi fraternity brothers at an on-campus fraternity house in October 2024.
据诉状称，诉状中点名的七名男子中Some已通过各自的律师发表声明，否认有任何犯罪行为。
Some of the seven men named in the lawsuit have issued statements through their attorneys denying criminal wrongdoing.
根据诉状，“简·多伊”在事发约三周后向该大学警方报告了这起涉嫌袭击事件。康奈尔大学曾对事件展开内部调查，并最终导致相关人员被开除和停学，但地方检察官办公室没有追究刑事责任。检方当时辩称，“简·多伊”最初提出的指控未达到纽约州法律规定的立案门槛，并称她曾表示自己是自愿且清醒地参与其中。
Jane Doe reported the alleged assault to the university’s police department about three weeks later, according to the lawsuit. While Cornell conducted an internal investigation into the incident, which led to expulsions and suspensions the district attorney’s office did not pursue criminal charges. Prosecutors argued at the time that Jane Doe’s initial accusations did not meet the legal threshold under New York law and said she described her participation as voluntary and conscious.
“根据纽约州刑法，缺乏同意的定义明确排除了因自愿饮酒或吸毒而导致自愿丧失行为能力的人，”范豪顿周三上午告诉亚历山大。“如果某人因醉酒而无法做出明智决定，这不能作为其无法同意的依据。这是纽约州法律中的一个漏洞，我知道目前有立法正在寻求修复，我支持这一点。”
“The definition of lack of consent under New York State penal law specifically excludes someone who was voluntarily incapacitated due to their voluntary consumption of alcohol or drugs,” Van Houten told Alexander on Wednesday morning. “If someone wasn’t capable of making a smart decision because of their intoxication, that is not a basis to say they couldn’t consent. That’s a loophole in New York State law that I know there’s legislation seeking to fix, and I support that.”
虽然范豪顿表示“我们在2024年11月掌握的事实并未改变”，但他称现在“可能存在我们未掌握或未向我们披露的额外证据，我们希望予以考虑”。周二，哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS News）报道了所谓受害者接受康奈尔大学警方访谈的记录细节。一名校园警方调查员主导提问，一名《教育法修正案第九条》调查员、一名受害者权益倡导者和简·多伊的顾问也在访谈第一天在场。根据该记录，她告诉调查员：“我可以100%确定我被强奸了。”然而，这并未被写入校园警方移交给范豪顿办公室的签署陈述中。
While Van Houten said the “facts as we knew them in November 2024 did not change,” he said there now “may be additional evidence that we did not have possession of or was not disclosed to us that we want to consider.”On Tuesday, CBS News reported details from a transcript of the alleged victim’s interview with Cornell University Police. A campus police investigator led the questioning, while a Title IX investigator, a victim advocate and Jane Doe’s adviser were also in the room during the first day of the interview. According to that transcript, she told investigators, “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped.”However, that did not make it into the signed statement campus police handed over to Van Houten’s office.
这位纽约检察官表示，他直到周二晚上才得知该记录的存在。他表示，基于2024年11月掌握的证据，他不提起指控的决定“并非难定”，但新信息“极其令人不安”，且“当然值得重启”调查。
The New York prosecutor said he only learned of the transcript Tuesday evening. While he said his decision not to bring charges “was not a close call, based upon the evidence that we had in November of 2024,” he said the new information was “extremely troubling” and “certainly merits reopening” the investigation.
“我们相信她。我们想给她伸张正义。所以我们将重启调查，”他说。
“We believe her. We want to give her justice. So we are reopening the case,” he said.
当亚历山大追问范豪滕为何直到最近才得知该记录的存在时，他表示其办公室依赖康奈尔大学警察局“彻底调查并向我们提供信息”。
When Alexander pressed Van Houten on how he could have only recently learned of the transcript’s existence, he said his office depended on the Cornell University Police Department to “be thorough and provide us the information.”
他说：“（2024年11月提供给检方的陈述）看起来很全面，似乎非常详细，是对发生事情的完整描述。我无法解释为何额外信息没有传达到我的办公室。”
“It appeared to be comprehensive,” he said of the statement provided to prosecutors in November 2024. “It appeared to be very detailed and a full account of what happened. I can’t explain why additional information did not make it to my office.”
范豪滕推测，也许由于第九条调查员在简·多伊接受警方讯问时在场，导致记录未被移交，“因为第九条程序是保密的。”不过，他也指出，第九条调查员“出席警方讯问”属于“非常不寻常”的情况。他告诉亚历山大，得知记录存在后，其办公室联系了简·多伊的律师。“我今天一早就给他发了邮件，以便与简·多伊取得联系并推动案件进展，”他说。
Van Houten suggested that perhaps the presence of a Title IX investigator during Jane Doe’s interview with police may have prevented the transcript from being turned over “since the Title IX proceedings are confidential.”However, he also noted it was “very unusual” for a Title IX investigator to be “present during the police interview.”He told Alexander that when he learned about the transcript, his office reached out to Jane Doe’s attorney. “I sent him an email first thing this morning to connect with Jane Doe and move this case forward,” he said.
“如果到2024年时真相仍未被查明并传达给我的办公室，那简直是一场悲剧，也是对Jane Doe的不公；而我们完全有能力改变这种状况，”Van Houten说道。“我的目标就是查明真相，并帮助她获得应有的正义。”
“If the whole truth didn’t make it to my office in 2024, that’s a travesty, and that’s a disservice to Jane Doe, and we can fix that,” Van Houten said. “And that’s my goal: to find the truth and to help her obtain justice.”
代表Jane Doe的Thomas Giuffra告诉CBS News，他和他的当事人都对Van Houten处理此案的能力“毫无信心”。
Thomas Giuffra, who represents Jane Doe, told CBS News that neither he nor his client had “any confidence” in Van Houten’s “ability to handle this investigation and prosecution.”
“他还需要做什么才能进行彻底的调查并提起诉讼呢？他手头有Jane Doe向警方报案的记录，还有那条在兄弟会成员间发送的、涉及性侵犯内容的群聊信息——这些信息据称是通过Snapchat应用程序发送的，校园警方在调查过程中也获得了这些证据，”Giuffra说道。“对此事毫无作为实在令人震惊。”
“What more did [he] need to do a thorough investigation and prosecute? He had a woman who told an officer she was raped and a group chat inviting sexual assaults,” Giuffra said, referencing an image of messages reportedly sent on the app Snapchat to members of the fraternity the night of the alleged rape, which campus police were given during the investigation. “The failure to do anything is shocking.”
康奈尔大学在给MS NOW的声明中表示，他们“支持汤普金斯县地方检察官的决定，即让Jane Doe的故事有机会被刑事大陪审团听取”。该校还指出，针对这起事件的Title IX调查已经对多名兄弟会成员实施了处罚，其中包括开除学籍和暂停学业等处分。
In a statement to MS NOW, Cornell University said it “supports the decision of the Tompkins County District Attorney (DA) to provide an opportunity” for Jane Doe’s story “to be heard by a criminal grand jury.”The university also noted its Title IX investigation into the incident resulted in “a range of sanctions” against several of the fraternity members, “which included expulsions and suspensions from Cornell.”
（注：Title IX是美国《教育法》中关于校园性骚扰和性侵犯的规定。）
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