Cornell University student says she was drugged and gang-raped by fraternity students
Warning: This story details sexual assault and may be upsetting to some readers.
A Cornell University student who was allegedly drugged and gang-raped by fellow students two years ago said she had to drop out of school, still cannot sleep and is dealing with enduring trauma from the event.
Meanwhile, she argues, nothing has happened to the students who raped her.
The student, known only as Jane Doe in court filings, has filed a civil lawsuit after an investigation into the incident led to no criminal charges against the alleged perpetrators.
Jane Doe claims she was drugged and raped by a group of fraternity brothers at the Ivy League university, in New York, 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 fraternity 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 fraternity’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 fraternity member replying in the thread saying: “Like you can walk in and whip it out”.
An investigation was conducted and no criminal charges were laid. Thomas Giuffre, Doe’s lawyer, questions how thorough that investigation was.
According to the Daily Mail, an attorney for one of the accused said that his client was never contacted by law enforcement.
According to Giuffre, Cornell University 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”.
The lawyer said the alleged victim is still struggling to move on from the attack, while the seven men involved all got to go on with their lives.
“She is basically stalled, and her life is devoted to dealing with the trauma,” the lawyer told the Daily Mail.
She had to drop out of university and developed anxiety and depression as a result of the incident.
Her lawyer described her as a young woman from a small town who worked hard to make it into the prestigious Ivy League university, only to see her life unravel after the alleged attack.
“She’s not some rich kid who went to private schools and all that,” he said.
“And now she’s dropped out of Cornell. She’s dropped out of college,” the attorney added.
“Those boys will go on and live their lives just fine, whereas my client is not going to have that benefit.”
The civil lawsuit, he argues, is her last chance at seeking accountability.
He adds that no outcome will make up for what happened to her.
“You could give her all the money in the world; nobody wants to have this as their story,“ he said.
Giuffre added that the allegations brought on by Doe were some of the most disturbing he has encountered in his career.
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