A New York prosecutor said Monday that he would reopen an investigation into accusations of a 2024 sexual assault at Cornell University, two weeks after a woman filed a lawsuit accusing the school and law enforcement of not doing enough to investigate her case. In her lawsuit, the woman alleged that she was plied with alcohol and drugs and then raped by multiple men at the Chi Phi fraternity house on Oct. 19, 2024, when she was a 20-year-old undergraduate. She said she reported the incident to the Cornell University Police Department several weeks later, but that no criminal charges were filed by prosecutors.

Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County district attorney, said in a statement on Monday that he was now reconsidering that decision. He said that while the original statement the woman gave to police did not seem to warrant criminal charges, he would now let a grand jury decide. “Jane Doe’s sworn statement in November of 2024 did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped,” he said. Mr. Van Houten said he would now reopen the investigation “recognizing that the process of healing from trauma is personal and different for every human.” A senior female prosecutor has been assigned, and any additional allegations from the lawsuit will be considered.

Thomas Giuffra, who represents the plaintiff in the lawsuit, said on Monday that his client’s report to the police at the time was not materially different to what is in the lawsuit. He said until his client filed her lawsuit earlier this month, she had not been contacted by investigators from the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office or any investigators trained in interviewing survivors of rape. The lawsuit has cast a spotlight on a persistent issue of accusations of sexual assault among students on Cornell’s campus. Cornell said the men involved were “issued a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions.”