Cornell rape case explained: Allegations, investigation, lawsuit

Cornell rape case explained: Allegations, investigation, lawsuit. Chris Kenning USA TODAY.

Key points

• She joined regarding 16, 000 other undergraduates at the Ivy League university located in Ithaca, a city in upstate New York.
• By 2024, Doe was 20 and living at the Tri Delta house.
• The same day, Cornell temporarily suspended the Cornell Chi Phi chapter and the seven students for alleged violations of the Student Code of Conduct.
• Late on a Saturday night in the fall of 2024, she arrived alone at the front door of a gabled fraternity house to visit a friend.
• The lawsuit names seven then-fraternity members, Cornell University, the Chi Phi Fraternity and others.

Cornell rape case explained: Allegations, investigation, lawsuit. Chris Kenning USA TODAY. Cornell University rarely expels students for sexual assault.

Meanwhile, a third of undergraduate women say they've been sexually assaulted, but on average, Cornell University documented expelling just one attacker per year.

She was a Cornell University undergraduate. A 20-year-old from a small town. A sorority sister, thrilled to be getting an Ivy League education at the sought-after Ithaca, New York campus.

Late on a Saturday night in the fall of 2024, she arrived alone at the front door of a gabled fraternity house to visit a friend. What happened over the next a number of hours is now the subject of a sprawling civil lawsuit, a reopened criminal inquiry and an escalating controversy at Cornell.

Notably, the woman, known anonymously as Jane Doe, alleged in a Sept. 18 lawsuit that she was gang-raped on Oct. 19, 2024 by members of Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity after being pressured into taking Ketamine and being too intoxicated to consent.

Meanwhile, a screenshot of a fraternity Snapchat group, included in the complaint, demonstrates someone announcing there was "free p***y" available.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit names seven then-fraternity members, Cornell University, the Chi Phi Fraternity and others. No fraternity members have been criminally charged. At least two have denied the allegations through attorneys.

Notably, the case has rocked Cornell's campus and fueled public questions regarding the campus police investigation, the university's Title IX investigation and the local district attorney's decisions: How did the same alleged event produce no criminal charges in 2024 but result in university expulsions, suspensions, and almost two years afterwards, spark a high-profile lawsuit?

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has defended his decision not to charge any fraternity member in 2024, citing discrepancies between the lawsuit and the woman's initial account. It he remarked characterized her drug apply and sexual contact as voluntary.

Now facing criticism and pressure, Van Houten has reopened the criminal inquiry to consider any new evidence.

Notably, the allegations have struck a national nerve, fueling outrage online and highlighting both the persistent difficulty of college sexual abuse and complications that can arise in prosecuting such cases.

For the woman at the center of the case, it marks a reckoning years in the making.

USA TODAY reconstructed the timeline of case from the civil complaint and court filings, statements and records from Cornell and prosecutors, contemporaneous messages published by other news organizations and statements from the parties. August 2022: A young student on a new campus.

In August of 2022, Jane Doe was 18, a recent high school graduate full of "hopes, expectations and trepidation" when she flew more than 1, 000 miles nationwide to Cornell, according to the lawsuit.

She joined regarding 16, 000 other undergraduates at the Ivy League university located in Ithaca, a city in upstate New York. With 37 fraternities and sororities recognized by Cornell, the complaint remarked. Greek life was promoted as being "vital" to making friendship and connections.

Drawn by "promises of sisterhood, " the lawsuit remarked, she joined the Alpha Beta chapter of Tri Delta, whose brick mansion at 118 Triphammer Road was situated in a leafy neighborhood near campus.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit remarked Doe wasn't aware when she arrived that during the fall semester of 2022, Cornell received reports at least 5 cases of drugging and 2 reports of sexual assault, each at a fraternity location.

Records show that from 2018 through 2024, more than 1, 200 incidents of sexual assault, dating and domestic violence and stalking were documented to Cornell University's Title IX office, USA TODAY has noted. October 2024: 'Worst experience of my life'.

By 2024, Doe was 20 and living at the Tri Delta house. On a Saturday night that fall, Oct. 19, she drank some vodka at the house before heading out to a sorority gathering, according to the lawsuit.

At regarding 8: 30 p.m., the complaint states, she took an Uber with the chapter's house mother, identified in the lawsuit only as "Jade, " to a Tri Delta social event at Moonies Bar & Nightclub in downtown Ithaca, regarding 2 miles away.

While bar staff drew an "X" on each of her hands to mark her as under 21, and the sorority had its own designated "sober monitors, " Doe had at least one drink at the event, the lawsuit remarked. By 10 p.m. She and a number of sorority sisters walked to another bar.

At 11 p.m, Doe "stumbled alone" to see a friend at the Chi Phi fraternity house, almost a mile away, the suit stated. Her lawsuit notes she arrived visibly drunk after concerning 10 drinks in three hours. At the fraternity house, her friend offered her a beer and they danced before he proposed a threesome with another fraternity brother.

"In her drunken state, Plaintiff was incapable of consenting to this proposition, " the lawsuit reads.

Meanwhile, the complaint notes she was pressured into snorting a white powder stated to be ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, using marijuana and drinking rum before the men began having sex with her. The complaint maintains she was unable to consent. At one point, another man additionally had sex with her, the complaint states.

At 1: 42 a.m. One participant posted a message to a Snapchat group called "Chi Phi Actives" there was "free p***y" available, according to the lawsuit.

"Shop still open?" one fraternity brother wrote afterwards, according to video of the chat obtained by CBS News.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit notes Doe hid under the covers as more men came in. One "commanded her" to snort drugs off his genitals, the suit remarked. She was afterwards taken to another room and assaulted again by two men. The lawsuit notes she was "completely incapacitated" by then.

Regarding 5: 45 a.m. The "assault concluded and Plaintiff lost consciousness, " the lawsuit stated.

Afterwards that day, the lawsuit observed that what happened was spreading around campus.

Text messages between Doe and one of the defendants in the civil lawsuit, lately published by CBS, show the defendant wrote that he and another man felt bad for being too intoxicated to "shut it down and kick people out before it got way out of hand."

Doe replied that "non(e) of the sexual stuff was illegal." Nevertheless, her attorney has stated she was in denial and traumatized at the time.

"What I experienced from those who raped me in the fraternity was the worst experience of my life, " Doe remarked in an official note to CNN. "I was brutalized and it injured me physically but perhaps more importantly, emotionally."

Trey Robb, Interim Executive Director of Chi Phi Fraternity, wrote in an official note that three days after Jane Doe's initial report, the chapter voted unanimously to remove the accused members from the fraternity rolls and the national fraternity afterwards expelled them. More: Too drunk to consent? Cornell case highlights legal controversy. November 2024: The initial investigation.

On Nov. 8, with the encouragement of her friends, Doe documented the incident to Cornell University Police. Van Houten remarked it included a six-page, typed statement with more than 20 handwritten notations.

"Once she was emotionally ready, she went to the University police and bravely shared what had occurred to her. She went to the police since she believed that she was the victim of a crime, " her attorney, Thomas Giuffra, informed CBS News.

In practice, the same day, Cornell temporarily suspended the Cornell Chi Phi chapter and the seven students for alleged violations of the Student Code of Conduct.

Notably, a campus crime alert issued that day observed "an individual reported being sexually assaulted by several males and coerced into consuming ketamine and other drugs" in the month prior, according to the Cornell Sun student newspaper.

Beyond taking Doe's statement, it is unclear what investigation the Cornell police conducted, including whether they interviewed the fraternity members. Ithaca Mayor Robert Cantelmo has since criticized campus police for failing to contact city police.

Giuffra remarked in interviews that after her initial gathering with campus police, his client was never contacted by anyone trained to interview rape survivors.

Campus police provided Doe's statement to Van Houten's office, he remarked, and asked if a crime had been committed. He remarked that multiple prosecutors and criminal investigators reviewed Jane Doe's statement.

Taken together, the developments around cornell rape case explained: Allegations, investigation, lawsuit point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.