A former West Point cadet who went on to study at Cornell and Columbia is now facing a civil lawsuit accusing him of drugging his girlfriend with a spiked protein shake in 2022, then secretly placing abortion pills in her body while she drifted in and out of consciousness. The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, says she wanted to keep the pregnancy and remembered finding pills in her mouth and spitting them out while incapacitated, before waking up bleeding and calling 911.
Lawsuit Details a Years-Long Deception
The complaint, filed in New York County Supreme Court on October 28, names Caleb T. Suh and lays out a timeline stretching back to 2020, when the two started dating while both were cadets at West Point, according to the summons and complaint filed by her attorneys. Doe discovered she was pregnant in 2022 while still enrolled at the academy, and the filing says she wanted to continue the pregnancy while Suh opposed it. The two have since broken up.
According to the complaint, Suh handed Doe a drink on February 4, 2022, describing it as a protein shake that would help their baby, then coerced her into finishing it. Court papers cited in the filing allege he held the bottle to her lips to force her to drink it all. The shake, the complaint states, was laced with Xanax and promethazine, and Doe reportedly became drowsy and incapacitated, slipping in and out of consciousness for several hours.
Pills, a Fake Pharmacy Account, and a Threat
The lawsuit alleges that while Doe was sedated, Suh placed abortion pills in her vagina and mouth. She reportedly spat out two pills she found in her mouth, only for Suh to allegedly put them back in. The complaint also says he threatened to commit suicide if she did not terminate the pregnancy. Per the filing, Suh obtained the pills by stealing Doe's identity to open a fake online pharmacy account, ordering the medication in her name and having it shipped to West Point.
Doe eventually woke to find herself bleeding profusely and called 911, the complaint states. Doctors who treated her confirmed she was suffering a miscarriage and performed a dilation and curettage procedure to remove the fetal remains. According to the lawsuit, Suh continued posting questions on pharmacy forums afterward asking whether doctors would notice if pills remained inside her. Her attorney, Russell Kornblith, said his client had lost a pregnancy she intended to keep and been robbed of her bodily autonomy.
Guilty Plea in Federal Court
Suh was separately charged in Manhattan federal court and pleaded guilty on June 30, 2026, to assault resulting in substantial bodily injury to a dating partner under federal law, according to the complaint. In his own plea statement, quoted in the filing, Suh said: “I also obtained Xanax through a friend. My intent was use the Xanax to unwittingly sedate my girlfriend” before giving her the abortion pills. As reported by The New York Times, Suh told a federal judge he had spiked her drink with Xanax and placed the pills in her vagina and mouth while she was incapacitated.
Suh was represented in the criminal case by attorney Thomas Kenniff, who previously defended Daniel Penny, the New York Post reported. Prosecutors are seeking a two-year prison sentence, and Suh asked in October to push his sentencing back to January so he could finish the semester; the request was granted.
From West Point to Columbia
After the alleged 2022 incident, Suh went on to study emergency medicine at Cornell University, earning a bachelor's degree in 2024 after enrolling that fall, according to the lawsuit. He later enrolled in Columbia University's public-health master's program, where he has described his long-term goal as becoming a physician leader committed to advancing patient care and structural equity, per the filing. The complaint alleges Suh's actions irreparably changed Doe's life.
Suh is the son of Dr. Ryung Suh, chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as reported by the New York Post. The New York Post reported, citing a source with knowledge of the situation, that Columbia was unaware of Suh's criminal conviction before media inquiries and that the university's applications do not ask students to disclose criminal history. The school reportedly took swift action after learning of his past.
Doe is currently allowed to remain anonymous in the litigation, though a judge could later decide to make her name public if Suh successfully argues for it, according to the lawsuit. The civil complaint seeks compensatory and punitive damages, and Doe has demanded a jury trial on all claims.
