Warning: This story details sexual assault and may be upsetting to some readers.
Prosecutors in the United States will reopen the case of the Cornell University student who was allegedly drugged and gang-raped by seven other students at the Ivy League university in New York.
The incident allegedly took place in October 2024 and a civil lawsuit was filed this month after an investigation into the event did not result in any criminal charges for the alleged rapists.
The case has drawn widespread outrage in the US as new details of the alleged incident and the subsequent investigation have been brought to light.
The woman, who was 20 at the time and is known only as Jane Doe in the court filing, claims she was drugged and raped in an attack that lasted several hours.
In the lawsuit, she described being plied with alcohol, pressured into taking ketamine and then raped repeatedly at a Chi Phi student house party in October 2024.
The victim claims seven students were involved. She also stated that, at one point, one of them sent a message to the student chapter’s Snapchat group letting members know there was “free p***y” upstairs.
A photo of the conversation thread on Snapchat, shared by the New York Post, shows another chapter member replying in the thread saying: “Like you can walk in and whip it out”.
There were reportedly around 50 men in that group chat who were informed of what happened.
According to her lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, as a result of her complaint, Cornell University eventually took disciplinary action against the students.
Two were reportedly expelled, the others temporarily suspended. According to the legal filing, the university allowed them to “mitigate their conduct by submitting essays”.
According to the District Attorney, the Chi Phi chapter was barred from the Cornell campus after the alleged incident on October 19, 2024. However, none of the men involved faced criminal charges.
Prosecutors will now reopen the investigation, with Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten saying, in a statement, that the allegations in the recent civil lawsuit are “dramatically different” to the statements made by the alleged victim two years ago.
He said that, two years ago, the alleged victim did not tell the DA she was drugged without her knowledge and that she did not consent to sexual intercourse.
“She never says that she was drugged without her knowledge. 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,” Van Houten told ABC News.
“We want to re-examine whether there’s additional evidence that we were not aware of in November of 2024, that exists now that would change our assessment of the case and would result in the grand jury finding that there was criminal conduct,” he said.
The victim’s lawyer blames police for failing to properly investigate the incident, saying she was never contacted by someone with adequate skills to deal with an abuse survivor.
“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,” Giuffra said.
He added that there was no follow-up with the alleged victim by either the Cornell police or the Tompkins County District Attorney.
The District Attorney this week released a summary of the victim’s initial statement. Van Houten also said that he considers Jane Doe’s statements to be credible.
Cornell University released a statement saying it “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”.
The university rejected the accusation that it did not punish those involved. Giuffra alleges that the chapter members “were afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays to Cornell”.
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