Prosecutors in New York said on Monday that they have reopened an investigation into the alleged gang-rape of a student at Cornell University after an outcry over “leniency” shown to seven fraternity members named as the perpetrators.
According to lawyers for the student, who filed a civil lawsuit against the university and her alleged attackers earlier in September, only two members of the Chi Phi fraternity were expelled after the October 2024 incident, in which she said she was drugged and repeatedly raped over the course of seven hours.
None of the seven were arrested, they said, and the others were made to write essays, attend workshops or serve short suspensions.
On Monday, Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins county district attorney, said his office was looking again at the case, after the woman, who was 20 at the time of the alleged assault, presented allegations in her lawsuit that were “dramatically different” from the statement she gave to police two years ago.
Later on Monday, Van Houten released a fuller statement defending his office’s past decision to not seek charges.
“While I generally refrain from commenting publicly on criminal investigations, the community outrage stemming from the incomplete news and social media coverage requires that I provide an answer to why the investigation resulted in a lack of criminal charges,” he said.
He went on to say: “Jane Doe’s sworn statement in November of 2024 did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped. On the contrary, Jane Doe’s statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual. My office obviously did not and could not have based our November 2024 decision on the allegations in a civil lawsuit that would not be filed until nearly two years later.
“Furthermore, I have never been contacted by Jane Doe’s attorneys. Not to inform me the original statement was inaccurate and not to ask me to reconsider our decision. Rather, I reached out to Jane Doe’s attorneys after the lawsuit was filed to understand the discrepancy between the original statement and the lawsuit’s allegations and the proper path forward in light of the lawsuit’s allegations,” Van Houten continued.
The district attorney said that he has asked a senior female prosecutor to prepare a case for a grand jury, adding that he “recogniz[es] that the process of healing from trauma is personal and different for every human”.
“Seeking justice sometimes requires us to reconsider or reopen cases when we are provided with additional evidence,” he said.
Van Houten also released a summary of a “six-page, single-spaced, typewritten statement” that Doe provided to the Cornell University police department in November 2024.
According to the summary, Doe told police that she agreed to engage in sexual activity with two Chi Phi members, “due to how attracted [she] was to [Male Number 1 ] on top of [her] drunken curiousness”.
“When she learned that Male Number 2 would be the third participant, Jane Doe ‘remembered being excited because [she] thought that [Male Number 1 and Male Number 2] wanting to have a threesome meant that they were gay’,” the summary said.
The summary added that another man entered the room and shook Doe’s hand.
“When [Jane Doe] made contact with [Male Number 3’s] hand, [Male Number 3] pulled [Jane Doe] into him and [they] began making out. While [Male Number 3] was kissing [her], [Male Number 2] began groping [her]. Eventually, ‘[Male Number 2, Male Number 3, and Jane Doe] would end up on the bed next to where [Male Number 1] was sleeping and [they] began to have a threesome,’” according to the summary, which said that four men later entered the room.
“Jane Doe had difficulty remembering parts of what happened next. She remembered ‘[Male Number 7] said something very rude and mean to [her].’ Male Number 7 apologized and ‘grabbed [her] face and started kissing [her]’. Jane Doe ‘quickly backed away to stop [Male Number 7] from kissing [her]’,” the summary said.
It went on to say that some of the Chi Phi members started to compliment Doe’s looks and asked if they could take drugs off her body.
“Jane Doe responded, ‘Sure.’ While the men were doing drugs off of her body, ‘[Male Number 3] and [another male] entered the room and said something like, ‘Ok we’re shutting down whatever the f*** this is,’” the summary added.
Outrage over the treatment of the alleged offenders has grown since the lawsuit was made public. The woman, who quit the university afterwards, said she went to visit a friend at the Chi Phi frat house in an already intoxicated state.
“When plaintiff arrived at Xi chapter’s fraternity house, plaintiff was visibly intoxicated as she had consumed about 10 standard drinks within the past 3 hours,” Doe’s lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit, one of the defendants “pulled [her] off to a quieter area and propositioned her with having a threesome with her and another one of his fraternity brothers. In her drunken state, plaintiff was incapable of consenting to this proposition.”
The lawsuit then alleges that two men “pressured plaintiff into snorting the alleged Ketamine with them, a drug she had never done before. During this time, [the two men] also plied plaintiff with marijuana and ‘Jamaican Liquor’ believed to be some type of high-proof rum.”
While they sexually assaulted her, she alleges, a message was sent to a frat house Snapchat group called Chi Phi Actives that stated there was “free pussy upstairs”.
At least five other frat members showed up and joined in, she said, and her ordeal lasted until about 5.45am “and plaintiff lost consciousness”, the lawsuit said.
It also alleges that Doe was “slapped” multiple times and that her “phone was on the other side of the room and she felt as if there was no way for her to escape this room full of predatory, fraternity men”.
“When plaintiff awoke later that day, on October 20, 2024, plaintiff returned to her residence within the Alpha Beta chapter sorority house. At this point, plaintiff was in a state of shock. At her residence, plaintiff noticed a large bruise that had formed on her buttocks and took pre-emptive medication for a urinary tract infection,” the lawsuit said.
She made a report to campus police about three weeks later.
Cornell’s vice-president for university relations, Kyle Kimball, issued a statement on 21 September calling the allegations “deeply disturbing”. Kimball’s statement claimed the Ivy League institution’s offices of civil rights, student conduct and community standards carried out a number of inquiries at the time.
Following the district attorney’s decision to reopen the case on Monday, Kimball said: “Cornell University supports the decision of the Tompkins County District Attorney (DA) to provide an opportunity for the victim’s story in the 2024 Chi Phi fraternity sexual assault case to be heard by a criminal grand jury.”
Kimball added that the “involved fraternity chapter was closed in 2024 and remains barred from campus”.
An attorney for the student told CBS News that none of the alleged perpetrators faced legal consequences for their conduct, and nobody in the frat house that saw the message did anything to stop the rapes from taking place.
“Not one of these guys was arrested,” said the lawyer, Thomas Giuffra. “Not one. That I can tell you for a fact.
“There were so many people that could have prevented it and they didn’t. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Giuffra also countered the statement of Van Houten, the Tompkins district attorney, which lays out what he said the alleged victim stated in her original police complaint from November 2024.
“She never says that she was drugged without her knowledge,” Van Houten said.
“She admits to taking drugs and alcohol voluntarily and with knowledge. She does not allege that she was forced to engage in any acts. She does not say that she was physically helpless or unconscious or incapacitated at any point during the time at the fraternity house.”
Giuffra told ABC News that neither the district attorney or Cornell police ever followed up with his client.
“In my experience, speaking with an abuse survivor requires delicacy, understanding and specialized training,” he said.
“An average university police officer would not have these skills. It would be the role of a specially trained detective or district attorney. However, Ms Doe was never contacted by anybody with those skills.”
Giuffra also said: “My client went to the Cornell University police because a crime was committed. It was the obligation of the police to investigate the complaints. They were given the group chat inviting the members of the fraternity to rape my client.
“This was a critical piece of evidence supporting that a crime had occurred. Despite this there was no follow-up with Ms Doe either by the Cornell police or the Tompkins county district attorney,” he added.
Named defendants in the lawsuit are Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar.
Two of those defendants denied the allegations in statements to ABC News.
“At bottom, Scott never sexually assaulted or even touched the plaintiff in any way,” Jeremy Saland, an attorney for Kretzschmar, said. “Period.”
Norris denied engaging in sexual activity or drug use – but acknowledged he sent a message that was included in the complaint.
“I thoughtlessly engaged in Snapchat and briefly stopped in the room where misconduct happened but not when it happened,” he said.
On Sunday, the Academy Award-nominated actor Florence Pugh posted a lengthy statement on Instagram about Giuffra’s client, praising the “unbelievably powerful” victim and her “strong will”.
“This is really the moment where we need our men to be as horrified and as sickened as us,” Pugh wrote. “You need to be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behaviour as much as we are.”
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Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
