Governor Kathy Hochul says the Cornell fraternity allegations are nothing short of horrifying. She has a point. A woman alleges that seven men drugged and raped her in October 2024, and a governor ought to speak up about that. The problem is the Tompkins County district attorney says her 2024 sworn statement did not allege she was drugged against her will or gang raped, and that it described the conduct as "voluntary, conscious, and consensual." Her lawyer disputes his reading.

I'd like to hear the same voice of concern when the accused doesn't wear fraternity letters. In June, Antonio Melendez Reyes, a 59-year-old Salvadoran man, was indicted in Suffolk County for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl in a Huntington alley as she walked home. Prosecutors say she broke free, scaled a fence and called 911 while he kept searching for her. DHS then publicly asked Hochul to commit to not releasing him, noting an immigration judge had ordered him removed in 1998. At arraignment, a judge ordered him held on $500,000 cash bail, and he faces up to 25 years if convicted. I could find no public response from her.

Outrage that depends on the defendant's profile is public relations. New York victims deserve one standard, whether the accused attends an Ivy League school or has a deportation order gathering dust.

Start with the Cornell record, stated fairly. The woman filed a civil suit this month. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew........

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