The lawyer for the woman allegedly gang-raped by Cornell University frat brothers told The Post on Tuesday that he may ask a judge to appoint a special prosecutor to the case, alleging gross bungling by the DA.
Plaintiff lawyer Thomas Giuffra said local Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten’s “defensive posture” over his office’s panned handling of the explosive allegations was “regrettable” — and questioned whether the DA office “is the best investigative office to handle this case.
“I am considering requesting that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate these crimes,” Giuffra said.
The DA — under fire for his decision two years ago to not charge the seven accused young men — released a lengthy statement Monday along with verbatim quotes from the accuser’s interview with Cornell campus police indicating she claimed the sex and drug abuse was consensual and that there was no crime committed.
Van Houten said he is reopening the investigation into the woman’s allegations based on the civil lawsuit she filed earlier this month against the men and school in upstate Ithaca, New York, claiming he was unaware of some of her accusations.
Giuffra, addressing the campus cops’ and DA’s alleged mishandling of the first probe, said he was “surprised” that “no meaningful investigation was done.”
The Ithaca Police Department confirmed Monday that no authorities even reported the incident to them.
“It would have been more appropriate for [Van Houten] to acknowledge the inadequate actions as opposed to engaging in the defensive posture that he has engaged in,” Giuffra said.
“Cornell Police do not handle serious crimes and are better equipped to break parties and do crowd control at football games, not conduct a major criminal investigation,” Giuffra said.
“The fact that they did not follow up on the group chat and interview witnesses indicates that the department was in over its head,” he said — referring to the seamy SnapChat back-and-forth between the frat bros saying there was “free p–sy” available and one person asking, “shop still open?”
“She was reporting rape and sexual abuse,” Giuffra said of his client. “She appropriately went to the police as the victim of a crime to report what had occurred. She expected her complaints to be taken seriously.
“Unfortunately, they were not and no real effort was made to speak to witnesses or canvas for evidence.”
Three of the named frat brothers in the lawsuit — Scott Kretzschmar, Scott Norris and Gillio Lopes — have outright denied the allegations. Another, Diego Sarabia, was fired Tuesday from his banking gig.
Giuffra said his client was still in shock at the time she went to the campus cops and should have been interviewed by a properly trained sex-crimes investigator.
“There were lost opportunities to conduct a meaningful criminal investigation,” he said. “It was left to a university police force who was unequipped to handle such an investigation.”
Van Houten did not respond for comment Tuesday afternoon.
On Tuesday, both Gov. Hochul and the Ithaca Mayor slammed Cornell for flubbing the investigation.
Cornell says that, in addition to essay punishments, some students were expelled as a result of their investigation. Giuffra claims that at least two were given the boot.
