Leo Rossitter, a Stanford undergraduate, will face a criminal trial in Santa Clara County for allegedly raping a fellow student, according to public court filings. A hearing to schedule a trial is set to proceed in December.

The University’s media relations office confirmed to The Daily that Rossitter, an economics and data science student, is enrolled at Stanford and living off campus. The Daily independently confirmed that he is currently taking classes on campus.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office specifically charged him in October 2024 with rape of an intoxicated person, oral copulation of an intoxicated person and penetration by force. The University said it was aware of the charges.

Rossitter’s attorney, Daniel Barton, told The Daily in a statement that his client “is not guilty of the horrible things that he is accused of. Since 2022, he has been defending himself against these false allegations both at the University and in court, and he will continue to defend his innocence.”

Rossitter, who is 24 years old, attended high school in Williamstown, Mass. and entered Stanford as a member of the Class of 2025 before receiving a two-year suspension based on an internal Title IX investigation of the alleged assault. He became eligible to return to campus this quarter.

The former student accusing Rossitter of rape declined to comment. The Daily does not identify alleged survivors of sexual assault without their consent.

In a statement from court filings, she described attending a party with a friend in the fall of her sophomore year. She said that, as she was visibly drunk, Rossitter offered to walk her back to her dorm while her friend stayed.

At her dorm, he allegedly asked to use the bathroom, and then to enter her room. She alleged that after she rejected his repeated requests to kiss her, he climbed onto her bed and raped her, leaving her bleeding.

The former student told The Daily the same account as part of a report on her Title IX process in 2025.

Last month, she also wrote an anonymous op-ed in The Daily describing institutional failures, poor communication and long wait times in her case by the University, law enforcement and prosecutors.

“When I was raped in my Stanford dorm room at 19, I too, like Cornell’s Jane Doe, thought that reporting it to Stanford and law enforcement would yield justice,” she wrote in the op-ed, referencing the Cornell Seven case. “Like Jane Doe, I was met with negligence and apathy.”

The op-ed detailed months of silence from the DA’s office despite repeated follow-ups, and a lack of coordination between the office and the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS).

The Daily reviewed contemporaneous emails, text messages and documents to corroborate those claims.

The 2025 Daily article — which did not name Rossitter — documented that it took two years from her initial report for Stanford’s Title IX process to conclude. The process ultimately determined “based on a preponderance of credible evidence” that Rossitter committed sexual assault by engaging in non-consensual oral sex, digital penetration and unprotected vaginal penetration.

According to the sanctions that resulted from the Title IX proceedings, which The Daily obtained and reviewed, Rossitter then received a suspension of two years, making him eligible to return to campus this fall.

“The process is designed to be careful and thorough, and many parts of it are dictated by federal law, but it can take too long,” Stanford spokesperson Angie Davis told The Daily in response to the op-ed last month.

Davis added that Stanford was “committed to finding opportunities to improve the process, from intake to hearing to outcome.”

The University did not answer whether it would consider further disciplinary action against Rossitter based on the charges or the result of the case.

“Stanford respects the integrity of the legal process, and we will not speculate about the outcome of the criminal proceedings,” Davis said.

Pelagia Martin ’27, a member of Resisting Rape Culture at Stanford (RRCUS) and former staff member at the SHARE Title IX and Title VI Office, told The Daily that the University is “failing survivors” by allowing a student charged with rape to return to campus. The Daily did not share Rossitter’s name with Martin prior to publication.

“The University is condoning rape at Stanford,” she added. “There is 100% a public safety risk inviting known perpetrators like the defendant back onto our campus.”

Martin described the case as an example of Stanford’s “historic lack of response to sexual violence,” including “the unstable status of sexual violence prevention programs, the silencing of survivors through long and traumatic Title IX proceedings [and] the lack of expulsions for rapists.”

Sean Webby, communications director for the Santa Clara DA’s Office, told The Daily that the office is preparing for trial.

Webby also previously said that the office is “working to ensure there is clearer and better communication with the victim,” and that it intends to “reassure this resilient survivor that we are working hard to find justice and accountability.”

Bill Larson, spokesperson for the SUDPS, said last month that the department “will not comment on specific details out of respect for all parties and for the integrity of the legal process.”

Larson added that SUDPS “takes every report of sexual assault seriously. We are committed to conducting fair, thorough, impartial, and trauma-informed investigations.”