MONTICELLO – On October 29, Sullivan County Court Judge James Farrell presided over a petition brought by Gilio Lopes, a former Cornell University student named as an alleged perpetrator, to remove New York State Attorney General Letitia James from the prosecution of the Jane Doe Cornell lawsuit.

Lawyers for Lopes, Andrew Miltenberg and Stuart Bernstein, argued that AG James showed bias against Lopes in a social media post that expressed sympathy for Jane Doe before she was appointed by Governor Kathy Hochul as a special prosecutor.

Arguing for the state was Assistant Attorney General Kaitlin Vigars, who said because there were no actual criminal charges currently filed against Lopes, there could be no harm done by James’s statements.

After hearing 30 minutes of arguments from each party, Farrell granted the petitioner’s lawyers one week to find out if the other six men named in the Jane Doe lawsuit would join the petition.

In his appeal to Judge Farrell, Miltenberg argued that it was a “foundational” issue of bias, and that any qualified prosecutor who has not demonstrated a presumption of guilt, as James did in her social media post, would be a better pick for this case.

Farrell questioned why the other six men named in the lawsuit were not part of the petition, and said their absence was a “real issue” for him because of its potential to cause uncertainty between his decision and future decisions by other judges that may rule on the lawsuit or other preliminary hearings leading up to it.

Farrell also had questions for lawyers representing New York State. After reading comments by Attorney General James during a press conference on October 2, Farrell asked Vigars if she agreed with him that James’ comments were improper. When Vigars deflected the direct question, he pressed, “You wouldn’t agree with me?”

“In the courtroom the judge asked a very important question,” said Miltenberg after the hearing, “regarding the other six of the so-called Cornell seven.” He said it’s likely that his team will ask the other six potential defendants to join the petition to remove James, and that they will likely accept.

“I happen to know that most of them will be glad to make similar arguments to the ones we made… While [Farrell] was concerned with us about the issue of joinder, I think the judge’s questions were fairly clear that he found the statements that were made by the Attorney General were in poor form and not well made, and that the real question is not to cause chaos between judges,” he said.

Judge Farrell will reconvene petition proceedings on November 5 to determine whether Attorney General Letitia James will be allowed to prosecute the Jane Doe Cornell Lawsuit.