NEW YORK – Following a hearing held in Sullivan County Court on October 29, four more of the accused “Cornell seven” have signed on to a petition brought by Gillio Lopes, a former Cornell University student, in an attempt to remove New York State Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the case of the seven Cornell students named in a lawsuit by Jane Doe.

Lopes and his lawyers argue that James showed bias when she posted about the Jane Doe case on the social media site X three days prior to her appointment as special prosecutor by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

During the Sullivan County Court hearing, Judge James Farrell questioned the absence of the other Cornell students in Lopes’s petition and said it could cause an issue with the decision.

According to court documents, lawyers for Lopes reached out to the other six former students, and now updated filings show the names Diego Sarabia, Scott Kretzschmar, Winston Lee and Scott Norris.

Farrell had given Lopes’s team a deadline of November 5 to try and include the other accused men. As of this time, no further appearances have been scheduled in Sullivan County Court.

In another development regarding this case, on November 5 Letitia James announced the appointment of former Civil Rights Unit Chief for the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Jacqueline Kelly, as outside counsel to lead the criminal investigation into the alleged sexual assault, which occurred on Cornell University’s campus in October 2024.

According to a press release, Kelly will lead an investigative team of attorneys and staff from the Office of the Attorney General and Boies Schiller Flexner, the law firm where she currently serves as partner.

“The Office of the Attorney General is committed to a thorough investigation guided only by the facts, the evidence and the law,” said Attorney General James.

In court documents, lawyers for Lopes say that this appointment does not change the status of their petition.

“This November 4 appointment does not eliminate Petitioner’s underlying concerns about Attorney James conducting a fair investigation,” they wrote, adding that the announcement of Kelly’s appointment does not state that Attorney General James has recused herself or changed her authority.