‘SVU’ Star Mariska Hargitay Speaks Out on Cornell Rape Case, Says University “Failed to Protect Its Students”

Mariska Hargitay is joining the list of celebrities condemning the seven men accused of sexually assaulting a woman at Cornell University in 2024.

The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star took to her Instagram for a joint post with the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization she launched in 2004 to support victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse. “We refuse for this victim to be reduced to just another story. Cornell has failed to protect its students,” her statement read.

The foundation added in the caption, “A Cornell student says she was never told the outcome of her own Title IX case, and the men she accused are back on campus. The Cornell Daily Sun is demanding answers and accountability, and so are we. Survivors deserve to be believed and kept informed. Silence protects no one. To her: we support you.”

The woman’s allegations have made headlines this week after she, a former Cornell University student, filed a lawsuit on Sept. 14, accusing seven Chi Phi fraternity members of drugging and raping her in October 2024. The woman, identified as Jane Doe in the suit, claimed she reported the incident to the Cornell University Police Department, but no criminal charges were filed.

On Monday, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said his office would reopen an investigation into the incident. “We want to reexamine whether there’s additional evidence that we were not aware of in November of 2024, that exists now that would change our assessment of the case and would result in the grand jury finding that there was criminal conduct,” Houten told ABC News.

Hargitay is known for her decades-long run as Captain Olivia Benson in NBC’s SVU, which follows a squad of detectives who investigate sex crimes.

The actress also took to her Instagram Story on Tuesday to repost other statements slamming the accused Cornell men. “Yes, I think we should ruin the futures of adult men who drug and gang rape a woman. Thanks for asking,” one post read.

Hargitay joined Florence Pugh, Josh Gad and Hudson Williams, who also recently spoke out about the Cornell rape allegations. “This is really the moment where we need our men to be as horrified and as sickened as us,“ the East of Eden actress wrote on her Instagram earlier this week. ”You need to be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behaviour as much as we are. How can you expect us to trust that it’s ‘not all men’ when in moments like this, many of you stay quiet?”