Sunny Hostin, co-host of American talk show The View, defended the initial decision not to charge seven Cornell University fraternity members accused of gang raping a student, saying on the show that the allegations have been presented without enough attention to the legal circumstances surrounding the original investigation.
A former federal prosecutor, Hostin said the allegations should be examined alongside the woman's initial account to authorities. She said that details in that statement did not, in her view, establish a sufficient basis for criminal charges under New York law at the time, while stressing that the accused men have not been convicted of any crime.
Hostin Challenges Coverage of the Allegations
On Tuesday's episode of The View, Sunny Hostin questioned whether the public debate had adequately distinguished between the woman's initial 2024 account and the allegations contained in a civil lawsuit filed nearly two years later.
She argued that the distinction matters because prosecutors could only act on the evidence available at the time. Hostin insisted on air that there was 'no way' Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten could have filed criminal charges against the seven fraternity members based on the statement their accuser gave campus police following the 2024 incident.
Hostin pointed to the woman's description of drinking and taking ketamine voluntarily, as well as her account of sexual encounters that she described as consensual.
She said that voluntary intoxication or drug use, by itself, does not automatically establish a legal inability to consent under New York law, while also noting that some of the men allegedly present did not participate in sexual activity, according to the original statement.
'She allowed other boys and consented to other boys snorting ketamine off of her body. Under New York law, voluntary intoxication or drug use that merely impairs judgment does not legally constitute an inability to consent to sexual activity,' Hostin said.
'If you voluntarily ingest drugs, voluntarily take alcohol, you can agree to have threesomes. Which, in her statement, she agreed to have two separate threesomes. There is no way, according to her statement in 2024, that any prosecutor would've brought forth a case,' the host added.
Civil Lawsuit Introduced New Allegations
The dispute stems from a civil complaint filed in New York in September 2026 by a woman identified as Jane Doe.
The 101-page lawsuit accuses seven Cornell students of sexual assault and names Cornell University, the Chi Phi fraternity and a local bar among the defendants. The filing contains allegations rather than findings by a court, and the defendants have not been criminally convicted in connection with the accusations.
The lawsuit presents an account of the October 2024 incident that differs in significant respects from the statement prosecutors relied upon previously. The complaint alleges events involving alcohol, ketamine and multiple men, alongside claims concerning communications between fraternity members.
Prosecutors Reopen Review Of Cornell Case
The original decision not to bring criminal charges was made by Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten in 2024. According to his subsequent explanation, the woman's sworn statement at the time described her participation in drug use and sexual activity as voluntary and did not allege that she had been drugged against her will or gang raped.
The investigation has since been reopened following the civil lawsuit. Van Houten has said prosecutors intend to prepare the matter for possible presentation to a grand jury, with a senior prosecutor experienced in sex-crime cases assigned to the review.
CornellSeven.com hosts the court filing and related source material. The site also explicitly cautions that allegations in the complaint are not judicial findings. It also stresses that reopening an investigation does not mean charges have been filed or that a grand jury has returned an indictment.
