New York prosecutors will reopen their criminal investigation into an alleged gang rape at Cornell University after the woman involved filed a civil lawsuit on 16 September 2026. The woman, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, claims she was drugged and sexually assaulted by seven men from the Chi Phi fraternity chapter on 19 October 2024.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said on Monday that his office initially decided not to pursue charges because evidence from Doe’s statement to police did not meet the legal threshold. But with new information from the civil case, prosecutors will bring the matter before a grand jury to determine if charges are warranted.
“Once we determine the appropriate charges, the case will be prosecuted in the most objective and impartial means possible,” Van Houten said.
Doe’s lawsuit alleges that she was intoxicated and under the influence of ketamine during the incident, making her incapable of consenting. She reported the assault to Cornell University Police on 8 November 2024. The lawsuit also includes an image from a Snapchat group chat where a fraternity member crudely suggested a sexual encounter with Doe might happen that night.
Cornell University said it supports the case going to a grand jury but rejected claims it failed to discipline those involved. “Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false,” the university said on Monday.
The university suspended the Chi Phi chapter and several students shortly after the incident. It also launched an internal investigation and a civil rights inquiry under Title IX. The fraternity chapter remains barred from campus.
In a public statement from November 2024, Cornell condemned the allegations of drug use and sexual violence at the fraternity house. The university said a panel of trained faculty and staff issued sanctions including expulsions and suspensions. “None of the individuals charged were offered the opportunity to write essays as a sole consequence of their involvement,” Cornell added.
Van Houten noted that Doe’s original sworn statement to police did not allege she was drugged or gang raped. Instead, it described her involvement in drug use and sex as voluntary and consensual. “Jane Doe’s sworn statement in November of 2024 did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped,” he said.
He also said Doe’s lawyers never contacted his office to dispute the original statement or to ask for charges to be reconsidered. However, Van Houten acknowledged that it can take years for victims to process trauma. “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,” he said.
Doe’s lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, told CBS in a statement that his client was traumatised, numb, and unable to accept what happened in the days after the assault. Giuffra criticised the investigation, saying Doe was interviewed only once and no further evidence was collected. “I would have expected at the very least that she would have been interviewed several times and evidence collected by law enforcement and a case developed. This is the normal sequence for serious crime investigations,” he said.
Giuffra also accused the district attorney’s office of trying to excuse failures in handling the case. “The defensive posture I have gleaned from the DA’s statements leads me to believe that they recognise that there were failures and they are trying to excuse them.”
The lawsuit says Cornell did not protect Doe or punish the men properly, claiming some were allowed to submit essays instead of facing harsher consequences. Doe says she suffered severe emotional and psychological distress and physical injury, aggravated by the university’s response. The suit alleges the incident quickly became widely known on campus.
One of the men named in the suit denied the allegations through his attorney, Jeremy Saland. Saland said his client admitted only to making an immature Snapchat comment but denied any sexual activity, touching Doe, or ingesting ketamine.
The case has drawn national attention since the lawsuit and decision to reopen the investigation. Actress Florence Pugh and US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are among those who have spoken out. On campus, reactions range from shock to strong support for Doe, according to Sophia Dasser, editor-in-chief of The Cornell Daily Sun. The student newspaper’s editorial board named the men involved and called for an independent review of how the case was handled.
The grand jury process could bring new developments, but for now the details remain focused on the civil lawsuit’s claims and the university’s disputed handling of the allegations.
According to Joy Online.
