A Cornell student’s lawyer is fighting to strip New York AG Letitia James of her special prosecutor role, warning her public support for the accuser destroys any claim of neutrality.
Defense attorney Andrew Miltenberg is asking a judge to invalidate Gov. Kathy Hochul’s appointment of Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in a civil sexual assault case tied to a Cornell University fraternity party, arguing James cannot be fair to the accused after publicly backing the complainant.
Fox News reported that Miltenberg, who represents Cornell student Gillio Lopes, laid out the challenge on “Saturday in America” with host Kayleigh McEnany and said the defense welcomes an investigation, just not one led by James.
Lopes is one of seven Cornell students named in allegations stemming from an Oct. 19, 2024, party at the Chi Phi fraternity house in Ithaca, New York. The accuser is identified in court papers as Jane Doe, a former Cornell student.
Weeks after the party, Doe filed a report with Cornell University Police. Campus officers investigated and sent her six-page voluntary sworn statement to the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors declined to bring charges at the time. They concluded the evidence did not meet the threshold for criminal charges under New York law.
Doe later pursued a civil lawsuit. In the complaint cited on air, she alleged that Lopes and another defendant placed her on a bed before two men had nonconsensual sex with her. Miltenberg called that account “not true.”
He pointed to text messages Doe allegedly sent the day after the party. Those messages, he said, show the encounters were consensual and contradict the lawsuit’s claims.
"I understand that perceptions shift and memories shift after a period of time, but her initial statements, her initial texts, her initial testimony with respect to the police, all was very clear about how she viewed this situation,"
Miltenberg said, while acknowledging that “post-traumatic stress memory repression is a real thing.”
After the local district attorney’s office stepped back, Hochul appointed James as special prosecutor. In her order, the governor cited concerns raised by Doe and the public that the alleged incident could not be investigated locally “without conflict or bias.”
Miltenberg and a lawyer for another defendant responded with a motion seeking to void that appointment. The defense argues James already took a side in public.
Before the appointment, on Sept. 28, James posted on X in support of Doe.
"What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable. I'm holding her in my heart and in my prayers," James wrote. "To her, and to all survivors: you're not alone. We stand with you."
James later rejected claims that she prejudged the case. She said her comments were meant to show “empathy” and insisted that “politics stops at the door” of her office.
Miltenberg was not persuaded.
"I do not believe she can be fair. Had she made a statement that was empathetic or compassionate towards a victim, that's fine. I don't think that person can become a neutral investigator or prosecutor,"
he said.
"We welcome an investigation, just not her, and I don't know how anyone could think at this point that she could be fair."
Miltenberg said the challenge has a “good chance of having her appointment voided.” He told the program he hopes the judge will act.
"I am hopeful that the judge will see it that way and will void her appointment and appoint or ask the governor to appoint someone equally as experienced, equally as interested in the facts and perhaps less personally invested in the case,"
he said.
He criticized Hochul and James for “grandstanding” and said the matter has become a “cultural battleground.” Lopes remains enrolled at Cornell. According to his lawyer, the student is “keeping a low profile, and he is looking forward to finishing his degree as a regular college student.”
Fox News Digital sought comment from the New York attorney general’s office and from Doe’s legal team. Neither provided an immediate response.
When a governor overrides a local declination and hands a high-profile campus case to a statewide elected official who already posted prayers for one side, defendants have every right to demand a referee who has not already picked a team.
