Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten declined to bring charges after his office reviewed a six-page statement provided by Jane Doe, which the prosecutor said did not describe a potential crime. Records show that Van Houten’s team did not review additional statements from Jane Doe and others who were interviewed.
Doe’s attorney, Thomas Giuffra, said in a statement to NBC News that they “applaud” the decision to appoint Kelly, who they believe “will do a thorough investigation.”
“We expect that she will recognize the disparate roles of the involved parties and consider all of the appropriate charges that are available in the Penal Law. We do not expect that she will limit her inquiry to a single specific charge,” Giuffra said. “We are grateful to Governor Hochul for taking the necessary steps to ensure that a meaningful criminal investigation would finally be conducted in this matter.”
Lawyers for two of the accused fraternity members have asked different state judges to disqualify James from leading the case on the basis that past comments she made on social media in support of Jane Doe exhibit a prejudgment and bias. Those requests are pending.
Andrew Miltenberg represents defendant Gillio Lopes and filed a petition on his client’s behalf to try to get James removed from the investigation as special prosecutor.
Miltenberg said in a statement on Wednesday that he and his co-counsel “welcome Jacqueline Kelly’s appointment and have no objection to her leading the investigative team,” but noted concerns about James’s involvement.
“Our Petition arose because Attorney General James publicly expressed a view concerning these allegations before she was appointed to investigate them,” Miltenberg said. “Changing who manages the investigation does not eliminate that concern if James continues to possess the authority to direct or override the critical prosecutorial decisions.”
Jeremy Saland, an attorney for defendant Scott Kretzschmar, said in a statement to NBC News that while Kelly has experience representing and prosecuting sex crime cases, “it is surprising that Attorney General James overlooked countless current and former New York Assistant District Attorneys who have dedicated their entire careers to investigating state sex crimes similar or identical to those currently being investigated here.”
“Though this appointment is a step in the right direction and one we welcome, James’s public statements have already run afoul of the rule of law by choosing political expediency over the presumption of innocence and pre-judging guilt without examining a stitch of evidence,” Saland added. “All this said, if the facts and the law are honestly and credibly followed, the outcome for Scott remains the same: he is innocent of any criminal wrongdoing.
James has said that her investigation will be fair and fact-based and that her social media remarks, which were made before she was appointed to handle the case, were based on empathy for the accuser. The office “is committed to a thorough investigation guided only by the facts, the evidence, and the law,” James said in her statement announcing Kelly’s appointment.
On the day James was appointed, her office said she was expected to recruit an outside attorney to assist in-house lawyers with the probe. Kelly is now set to bring a team from her law firm, which she joined as a partner last year. Her bio says she specializes in “high-profile regulatory or criminal investigations, as well as victims of sexual assault and other crimes.”
Kelly also worked on a New York indictment against octogenarian fashion CEO Peter Nygard, who in 2024 was sentenced in Canada to 11 years in prison for sexual assaults. The ex-prosecutor also handled a case against Ricardo Cruciani, a pain management doctor accused of sexually abusing a number of patients in several states.
In 2025, Kelly oversaw the prosecution that led to Combs’ conviction for transportation to engage in prostitution but ended in his acquittal on more serious sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy counts. The disgraced entertainment executive is serving a 50-month federal prison sentence.
One of the men accused in Jane Doe’s lawsuit, Winston Lee, is represented by Teny Geragos, who defended Combs at his federal trial.
Geragos declined to comment on Kelly’s appointment.
At trial, Combs’ defense team accused prosecutors of misrepresenting their client’s unconventional relationships with women and denied that the sexual encounters were not consensual. Prosecutors, however, accused Combs of orchestrating a violent criminal enterprise and forcing women and male escorts to participate in marathons, drug-fueled “freak offs.”
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