A Sullivan County judge heard oral arguments Thursday to determine whether New York Attorney General Letitia James should be removed as special prosecutor in the reopened criminal investigation into an alleged gang rape at Cornell University.

The proceeding ended without an immediate ruling from Judge James Farrell.

The hearing stems from a challenge filed by defense attorney Andrew Miltenberg, who represents Gillio Lopes, one of the men accused in the case.

Lopes is one of seven former Chi Phi fraternity brothers who are accused in a lawsuit of drugging and raping a female Cornell student at their fraternity house in October 2024.

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Defense counsel argued that social media comments posted by James prior to her official appointment as "special prosecutor" demonstrate a pre-existing bias and a presumption of guilt that undermines the prosecution's neutrality.

"What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable," James had posted on social media. "I’m holding her in my heart and in my prayers. To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand with you."

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Arguing before the court, Miltenberg pointed to those public declarations of support as proof of a pre-determined bias.

"Whether it affects all or just one, either the court determines the statements made by AG James take her out of contention to be neutral party reviewing case or not," Miltenberg argued, calling the initial public statements an "original sin" for the case.

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In a statement sent to Fox News on Thursday, a spokesperson for James' office said, "As indicated in our motion before the court, these claims are without merit. The Office of the Attorney General remains committed to conducting an investigation guided only by the facts, the evidence, and the law."

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Representing the state, Assistant Attorney General Kaitlin Vigars defended Gov. Kathy Hochul's appointment of James and pushed back against the disqualification effort, emphasizing that public statements alone do not meet the legal threshold for removal.

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Vigars argued that to warrant disqualification, there needs to be a showing of actual prejudice rather than speculative claims of bias.

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Farrell peppered Vigars with questions about the circumstances leading up to James’ appointment, including if Hochul was aware of James’ social media comment, if James and Hochul were standing together when the governor made remarks about the "brave young woman," if that runs afoul of professional conduct, and if the purpose of appointing the AG was to avoid bias.

Farrell also raised broader procedural concerns during the arguments, noting the potential for conflicting legal rulings if challenges proceed piecemeal across jurisdictions.

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"If multiple judges come down with decisions that’s chaos," Farrell said from the bench, "and the court should not fashion chaos."

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Hochul appointed James as special prosecutor on Oct. 1 after stepping in to bypass the local Tompkins County district attorney, who had previously declined to bring charges.

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With no decision rendered at the conclusion of Thursday's arguments, the judge is expected to issue a formal written ruling in the coming days on whether James will remain as special prosecutor or if the investigation must be reassigned.

Hochul later said on Thursday that all sexual offense complaints at Cornell University are now being referred to New York State Police, rather than Cornell University Police, unless otherwise requested by that individual.

"Every student deserves to feel safe on their campus," she said in a statement, in part. "And when someone reports sexual assault, they deserve to be heard, treated with compassion, and know their allegations will be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated by law enforcement trained to support survivors.

"What Jane Doe described is horrifying. Survivors should be able to trust the institutions responsible for protecting them. We cannot afford to let them down."

A DNA breakthrough has solved the 52-year-old murder of a Utah police chief's teenage daughter, and the cold-case detective who helped crack it says notorious serial killer Ted Bundy could have other victims investigators do not even know about.

Melissa Ann Smith, 17, the daughter of then-Midvale Police Chief Louis Smith, was found dead in 1974. For decades, investigators suspected Bundy but lacked the evidence needed to definitively tie him to her murder.

That changed in July, when DNA evidence in the killing of another 17-year-old Utah girl, Laura Ann Aime, was matched to Bundy, allowing investigators to compare evidence preserved from Smith's case for more than half a century.

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"There may be more victims out there that we're not even aware of, and I think there's always been that speculation," Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office Detective Ben Pender told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

Pender, a 35-year law enforcement veteran assigned to the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office unsolved homicide and missing person unit, said investigators plan to preserve the evidence that helped solve Smith's murder so it can potentially be used in other cases.

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"We're gonna hold on to this evidence, and we're gonna utilize it in cases that we believe may be connected to see if we can't resolve not only our case, but anybody else who may have a case with Bundy," Pender said.

Smith's body was discovered by hunters on Oct. 27, 1974, in a wooded area near the border of Summit and Salt Lake counties.

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"These cases that are unsolved are unsolved, in my opinion, for a reason, and because they are extremely difficult to solve," Pender said.

Although investigators had long suspected Bundy, similarities between Smith's killing and his other crimes were not enough to definitively tie him to her death.

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Investigators needed evidence establishing that Bundy was responsible rather than relying on a similar method of operation, Pender said.

"DNA is not always the answer, but it definitely is a piece that's missing a lot of times in these cases that, with everything else with the case, will maybe bring that together," Pender said.

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The break investigators needed ultimately came from the Aime case.

Aime vanished after leaving a Halloween party to buy cigarettes on Oct. 31, 1974. Her body was discovered by hikers near American Fork Canyon days later, and investigators determined she had been raped, strangled and murdered.

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Bundy was considered the prime suspect for decades, but authorities lacked evidence conclusively tying him to the killing.

Investigators eventually developed a DNA profile from evidence in Aime's case that was linked to Bundy. Remaining evidence from her case then gave investigators an opportunity to compare it with evidence preserved from Smith's killing.

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Pender said investigators had retained reports and evidence from the original Smith investigation, including evidence collected during her postmortem examination.

Utah County investigators reached out to Summit County after the breakthrough in the Aime case to determine whether the remaining evidence could help resolve Smith's murder. Summit County then turned to Pender because Salt Lake County had maintained evidence from the 1974 investigation.

Investigators worked with the Utah Bureau of Forensic Services to compare DNA evidence from the two cases and determined the profiles matched.

The DNA findings, combined with evidence involving Bundy's pattern, motive, means and opportunity, led authorities to conclude Bundy killed Smith and formally close her case Tuesday, 52 years to the day after her body was found.

The breakthrough would not have been possible without evidence preserved by investigators for more than five decades.

"It's extremely important, in all of these cases, to preserve the evidence," Pender said. "We, in all homicide cases, we maintain that evidence forever."

"We don't ever get rid of that, even if a case is resolved or solved, and we don't get rid of it for this very reason," he added.

But Pender cautioned that solving one decades-old murder through DNA does not mean investigators can simply run every unsolved killing potentially connected to Bundy through a database.

Each case is different. Some have DNA evidence while others do not, and evidence collected decades ago may have degraded, been handled before investigators understood the importance of preserving DNA or contain genetic material from multiple people.

"Back then, DNA wasn't a thing, so nobody knew of it," Pender said.

Advances in forensic technology continue to give investigators new opportunities to examine old evidence, but the limitations of individual cases remain.

Pender said his caseload includes 34 unsolved homicides and 14 adult missing person cases in which investigators suspect foul play. He stressed that those cases are not believed to be connected to Bundy, with one notable exception.

Nancy Wilcox remains missing, and Pender said Bundy confessed to killing her. Her body has never been recovered, preventing investigators from closing the case based solely on his confession.

Smith's case, Pender said Tuesday, "does not close the book on Ted Bundy."

Investigators intend to continue working on Wilcox's disappearance and preserve the Bundy evidence for any other cases in which it could prove useful.

Other cases potentially tied to Bundy could also yield new answers through DNA, Pender said.

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"I think it's definitely possible," Pender said. "It just depends on what information other agencies maybe have in their particular cases."

Pender emphasized that cooperation among law enforcement agencies was critical to solving Smith's murder, with Summit, Salt Lake and Utah counties working alongside the state crime lab.

"It's more about the victim, right? It's about the victim, the family, the community, it's about resolving the case," Pender said.

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Bundy killed at least 30 women and girls across multiple states during the 1970s, though investigators have long suspected his true victim count could be higher.

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He confessed to dozens of murders before his death, including crimes that had previously been unknown to police, but not every killing attributed to him has been independently confirmed.

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Bundy was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering two Florida State University students in 1979 and received another death sentence the following year for the rape and murder of a 12-year-old girl.

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He was executed in Florida's electric chair in 1989.

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Nearly four decades later, Pender said it still matters that investigators prove which crimes Bundy actually committed rather than simply attributing unresolved murders to one of America's most notorious serial killers.

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"It is very important that we always make sure of who we are suspecting, or have accused, or have confirmed that it's actually that person, regardless of the number of killings or murders that Ted Bundy committed," Pender said. "It's still important that we connect them the right way, and we don't just … throw everything on to Ted Bundy that we're not quite sure of."

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"We don't want to accuse the wrong person of something that they didn't maybe have any involvement," he added.

Former Colombian President Gustavo Petro has been accused of trapping and exploiting 48 women for presidential parties, with officials alleging they were hired "just to be with President Petro."

Carlos Andrés Ríos, director of Colombia’s Administrative Department of the Presidency (DAPRE), claimed Petro oversaw a system that used service contracts to "systematically" control and weaponize the women, channeling public salaries in exchange for intimate relationships.

"We are going to prove to the Colombian people how the Casa de Nariño was unfortunately set up, organized, and tailored for something completely different — not to govern, but to party there every single day, bring in women," Rios said during a congressional hearing last week.

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Petro issued a statement Sunday denying that he had used his public office to obtain sex.

"I have never given out a contract in exchange for sexual relations. I would vomit on myself if I ever did such a thing," Petro said in a post on X.

He argued that while his office provided state-funded aid programs for vulnerable women, he claimed that it is fundamentally different from giving contracts to individuals in exchange for sexual favors.

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"Helping poor women, female heads of households, and those engaged in sex work so that they have different life options — as I have demonstrated in public administration through concrete and funded programs — is something very different from giving out contracts in exchange for sexual relations. No person who has participated in those public programs will ever be able to say that I have done anything of the sort," he said.

Petro also acknowledged in the statement that he had occasionally visited establishments where sex work took place when he was young, saying he regretted the experiences and had stopped visiting such places decades ago.

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"When I was very young, I occasionally visited places where sex work was practiced. There, I experienced that paying for sex felt dirty to me, and I perceived the sadness of the men and women who attended those places. That is why I stopped visiting them decades ago," he said.

The accusations come amid broader criticism of Petro over alleged misuse of public funds, depletion of national budgets and drug trafficking. 

Petro has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated attacks by figures such as President Donald Trump and Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella.

"After attempting to portray me as corrupt and a drug trafficker — an intention expressed by people like Abelardo de la Espriella and Donald Trump, without being able to present a single piece of evidence of corruption or drug trafficking, because I have never stolen a single peso from the public treasury and I have fought for over two decades against drug traffickers, exposing their political ties," Petro said. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.