NEW YORK — A onetime West Point cadet drugged his then-girlfriend in her barracks room, administered abortion pills to her against her will and caused a miscarriage. Then he went on to study at two Ivy League universities, starting at one of them after he pleaded guilty to assault, according to court records and a new lawsuit.
The man, Caleb Suh, graduated from Cornell University this year and was a public health graduate student at Columbia University as of Oct. 28, when the woman sued in a New York court. His current status at Columbia is unclear.
The suit drew attention to a case that had played out quietly at West Point and in federal court, where Suh pleaded guilty this past June to the March 2022 assault on a cadet in the class below him. She was 19 and in her second year at the U.S. Military Academy, according to prosecutors.
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She wanted to have the baby. Suh didn’t. Instead, he told the judge, he impersonated the woman to open an online pharmacy account, ordered abortion medications, got Xanax from a friend to use as a sedative, and duped his girlfriend into drinking what she thought was just a prenatal protein shake. After waiting until she fell asleep, he administered the abortion pills orally and vaginally.
According to the woman’s lawsuit, Suh left her alone and incapacitated and ignored her attempts to contact him after she woke and realized she was bleeding. She called 911 and was hospitalized.
Lawyer: ‘She’s suffered a life-changing event’
While she was being treated, Suh went back to the online pharmacy’s website to post questions about whether doctors might detect the pills, according to the lawsuit, first reported by The New York Times.
“She’s suffered a life-changing event that she is still dealing with and will be dealing with for the rest of her life,” her lawyer, Russell Kornblith, said by phone Monday. Her suit against Suh seeks unspecified damages.
Suh, who is awaiting sentencing, told the court in June that he was “deeply and immeasurably sorry for my actions and the pain that I have caused.”
His lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, declined to comment Monday.
The lawsuit, which the woman filed under the alias Jane Doe, comes amid national scrutiny of how universities handle student misconduct complaints. Cornell, in particular, has faced criticism since a former student’s lawsuit alleged that several men raped her at a fraternity house in 2024 and that the university did too little after she reported the accusation.
Woman made report to West Point
In Suh’s case, it’s unclear what discipline, if any, he may have faced at West Point. The woman reported him to the Army Criminal Investigation Division there in May 2022, according to her lawsuit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcia Cohen said in court in June that Suh had told a West Point investigator the woman’s miscarriage was accidental, denying that he’d ordered abortion medication.
The military academy didn’t provide information Monday on the probe’s findings or outcome.
Suh was criminally charged in a Manhattan-based federal court in June, court records show.
What Cornell says it was told
In the meantime, he transferred to Cornell during the 2023-2024 school year. The Ithaca, New York-based university said in a statement Monday that he answered “no” to an application question asking whether he’d been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at any previous educational institution. West Point reported that he was in good academic standing and was eligible to return, Cornell said.
Cornell websites indicate he was recognized for his writing in spring 2024 and got involved with the Cornell Center for Health Equity, a research group. He wrote on its site that he was interested in “the intersection of emergency medicine, addiction and public health” and aimed to become a physician.
Suh also briefly worked at Cornell’s medical school, leaving several months ago, the university said. He’s credited among authors of a medical journal report summarizing a 2025 conference on cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
This September, Suh started a master’s program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York City, his lawyer wrote to the judge in Suh’s federal case.
Sentencing set to let Suh finish semester
Columbia declined to comment Monday, citing educational privacy laws.
A person familiar with the matter but not authorized to comment about it publicly said Mailman applicants aren’t asked about their criminal records but are asked whether they have ever been disciplined for student conduct violations or poor academic performance. Suh’s application never mentioned any disciplinary proceedings, the person said.
At the request of Suh’s lawyer, his sentencing recently was put off until January for him to complete his semester at Columbia. He also has been taking a three-month life skills course for people charged with federal crimes, Kenniff told the court in a letter last month.
Prosecutors didn’t oppose the postponement. They declined to comment Monday.
The woman’s lawyer declined to say whether she ultimately graduated from West Point or what she is doing now.
“We hope that by our client coming forward with this lawsuit, it will, at least, ensure that this never happens to anyone else,” Kornblith said.
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Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed.
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