Case of alleged gang rape at elite US university reopened amid outrage
Prosecutors in the US have reopened an investigation into a former student’s claims she was drugged and sexually assaulted by multiple men at a frat house party at an elite university.
The woman, known only as Jane Doe, initially spoke to police some days after the party at a fraternity at Cornell University, New York, in late 2024.
Cornell University has become embroiled in an alleged gang-rape scandal. Matt Burkhartt/Getty Images via CNN
Police brought the woman’s sworn statement to Tomkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, whose office said the woman’s statement would not support charges over the incident.
“Jane Doe’s statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual,” Van Houten said in a statement released overnight addressing the reopening of the prosecution.
However, Doe has now filed a civil lawsuit naming more than a dozen defendants, including seven Chi Phi fraternity members, and Cornell University, alleging the university did not do enough to protect her and that it sheltered the students.
She also claimed some of the alleged assailants were offered the chance to write an essay as part of their disciplinary action, but the university has denied this was the case.
Van Houten said the woman’s civil lawsuit contained entirely different allegations to those she had provided to police in 2024, and that he was bound to consider new evidence.
“I recognise the reality that it can take years of therapy and healing for victims of sexual assaults to fully process and understand what happened to them,” Van Houten said.
“Seeking justice sometimes requires us to reconsider or reopen cases when we are provided with additional evidence.”
He confirmed he had directed a senior prosecutor in his office, “a woman who has significant experience in prosecuting sex crimes and has conducted jury trials involving the sexual assault of college students by college students”, to prepare the case for a grand jury presentation.
What the lawsuit says
The 101-page complaint names more than a dozen defendants, including the seven fraternity members from 2024, Cornell University, and the Chi Phi fraternity.
Allegations include negligence, breach of contract, sexual assault and battery, and violations of New York’s Human Rights Law.
The lawsuit says Doe was 20 years old and had been drinking at her sorority house and a bar before she arrived at the Chi Phi house to visit a friend, who was one of the fraternity members on the night of October 19, 2024.
According to the suit, Doe had already consumed about 10 standard drinks within three hours when she arrived at the fraternity house.
The complaint alleges the friend and another fraternity member gave her more alcohol and pressured her into snorting a substance they described as ketamine, and that she was then sexually assaulted while “incapable of consent”.
District Attorney Matthew Van Houten confirmed the case was being reopened. CNN
At roughly 1.42am, one of the men allegedly sent a message to the fraternity’s Snapchat group chat – titled “Chi Phi Actives” – stating there was “free p----” upstairs.
By doing this, the suit alleges one of the accused “encouraged other XI CHAPTER members to join in on the gang rape of plaintiff.”
A photo of a portion of the chat is included in the filing.
Multiple fraternity members then entered the room, where the complaint alleges they pressured Doe into taking more ketamine and subjected her to an hours-long assault that continued until approximately 5.45am.
Doe reported the incident to the Cornell University Police Department on November 8, 2024, the complaint says.
Cornell suspended the Chi Phi chapter and the seven accused students, “who were afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays to Cornell”, according to the lawsuit, which Cornell denied.
The complaint faults Cornell for failing to properly discipline after the assault, “all the while sheltering them from speaking to law enforcement, and silencing victims”.
Cornell’s “conduct was so outrageous, shocking, despicable, and contemptible that it exceeds the reasonable bounds of decency as measured by what the average member of the community would tolerate and demonstrates an utter disregard for the consequences that would follow,” the lawsuit says.
The complaint is seeking a jury trial to determine monetary damages.
Questions over investigation
Although Van Houten said in his statement that nothing in Doe’s 2024 statement indicated she had been drugged against her will or sexually assaulted, Doe’s attorney, Thomas P. Giuffra, said he believes the initial investigation was inadequate.
“It is challenging for me to understand how a thorough criminal investigation could have been conducted when she never spoke with anyone other than the officer who took her original complaint,” Giuffra told CNN.
“Other than her initial contact with Cornell Police, she was not contacted by investigators from the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office or any investigators trained in interviewing rape survivors.”
Van Houten said his office had asked police to tell Doe that she could ask for a personal meeting with he and his team to discuss their decision not to press charges.
He said neither Doe nor her attorneys had contacted his office in the intervening time.
Cornell rebuts claims about lax punishment
Cornell said in a statement it “supports the decision of the Tompkins County District Attorney (DA) to provide an opportunity for the victim’s story … to be heard by a criminal grand jury”.
In an earlier September 21 statement, Cornell declined to confirm the individual disciplinary outcomes, citing federal student privacy law.
The Chi Phi fraternity has been named in the lawsuit. Stephen Reeves
The school said violations of university policy “could lead to sanctions up to and including suspension or expulsion,” adding, “We will respond in detail through the legal process.”
Doe’s attorney said Cornell expelled two of the seven accused students while the others received lesser punishment, including suspensions, workshops or written assignments.
Cornell countered that claim, saying there was a range of sanctions for the accused students, including suspensions and expulsions.
But “none of the individuals charged were offered the opportunity to write essays as a sole consequence of their involvement”, the university said.
The sanctions came after it conducted a formal Title IX investigation, separate from the criminal proceeding, and a panel of trained faculty and staff heard evidence over multiple days, the school said.
“Any suggestion that the University did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false,” the statement read.
“A continuation of the false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case is irresponsible, will make survivors feel less safe and supported, and will perpetuate the underreporting of sexual assault.”
The school also said it barred the Xi chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity from its campus and launched a sexual assault task force shortly after the incident, adding it has implemented several of the group’s recommendations.
An attorney for one of the accused fraternity brothers denied any wrongdoing by his client.
“Even the District Attorney’s Office, led by a chief prosecutor with the duty to pursue justice and uphold the rule of law without bias or favour, filed no charges against [him] because what she alleged did not happen,” attorney Jeremy Saland said in a statement to CNN.
He said his client “never sexually assaulted or even touched the plaintiff in any way”.
Jane Doe speaks out
In a statement to CNN, Doe said she went to Cornell “with great hope and promise for a good education”.
“What I experienced from those who raped me in the fraternity was the worst experience of my life. I was brutalised and it injured me physically but perhaps more importantly, emotionally,” Doe said.
“I want to recover from this trauma but it is extremely difficult. It affects every aspect of my life. It will haunt me and be part of me the rest of my life.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has spoken in support of Jane Doe. Bloomberg
The lawsuit – and along with the lack of criminal charges and accusations of inadequate discipline – has drawn a wave of outrage.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York City, condemned what she described as a “culture of rape” at elite universities and institutions during a Sunday town hall in Ithaca, where Cornell is located.
“Those men posted in a group chat,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referencing allegations in the lawsuit.
“That means it was normal to them, that means it was acceptable to them. This is a culture, this is norms, these are practices, and what we must do is understand that we cannot protect those spaces anymore.”
Actor Florence Pugh has also addressed the alleged gang-rape. Getty
Actor Florence Pugh also posted an impassioned response in a lengthy Instagram post Sunday, writing, “I’m no longer tired – I’m enraged by schools protecting boys, in fear of their futures being wrecked.”
“What about the life that those girls then have to endure, with the knowledge that his reputation is more precious than her truth?” she added.
Pugh also addressed Doe directly, calling her “so unbelievably powerful” and “so strong willed”.
“Know that women everywhere are here to hold you and help you on your healing journey,” she wrote.
Van Houten, meanwhile, said his office and staff had been targeted by threats from the public.
He blamed the “incomplete” media coverage for sparking outrage over why charges were not initially laid in 2024.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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