In a six-page assertion given to police in November 2024, a Cornell College scholar advised a campus police officer what occurred to her on the Chi Phi fraternity home a month prior “felt like coercion,” based on a replica of the police report obtained by ABC Information.
The assertion from the scholar, sworn on Nov. 15, 2024, is essentially the most detailed account but of what “Jane Doe” described in a civil lawsuit two years later as a “gang rape.”
The previous scholar didn’t name it that in her assertion on the time. She did element a number of cases the place she declined to take part in sure sexual acts advised by the lads, based on the assertion.
The Chi Phi fraternity home at Cornell College in Ithaca, N.Y., Monday, Sept. 28, 2026.
Heather Ainsworth/AP Picture
The lady’s assertion was central to a call by the Tompkins County District Lawyer Matthew Van Houten to not convey fees in 2024.
In an interview with ABC Information this week, Van Houten described the allegations as “morally disturbing” however argued Jane Doe’s 2024 account of the incident advised that she consented to the sexual exercise. He stated that she didn’t withdraw her consent, and that when she raised issues, the fraternity members “stopped and didn’t pursue what they had been doing.”
In line with her 2024 assertion, at one level she stated “no to the foursome” one of many fraternity brothers proposed, she stated in her assertion. At one other level she recalled “a gaggle of a number of males” strolling right into a room and “I used to be immediately horrified, and I bear in mind squealing out loud and working throughout the room and hiding underneath the covers on one other mattress,” the assertion stated. “I used to be horrified as a result of I used to be actually embarrassed that these people had seen me fully bare.”
Cornell College Police automobiles on campus in Ithaca, New York, US, September 29, 2026.
Lauren Petracca/Reuters
The one time Jane Doe’s assertion used the phrase “rape” got here when she defined why she took a further hit of ketamine.
“I had change into extraordinarily uncomfortable with how this evening was turning out so my thought was, if I do Ketamine once more possibly I’ll go out. My thought was that if I handed out and these males had intercourse with me, then they may very well be charged with Rape,” the assertion stated.
The boys continued, based on her assertion.
Throughout the remaining threesome, Jane Doe stated, “I bear in mind being completely disgusted on the scenario, and I felt very drained and intoxicated. I’d say that my stage of general intoxication was a few 8 out of 10 stage of intoxicated. I’d say that it was essentially the most intoxicated I’ve ever been in my life. I felt like I used to be unable to make any resolution due to how intoxicated I used to be,” the assertion stated.
“To me, that felt like coercion,” she wrote within the assertion. “Additionally I felt like as a consequence of my intoxication, they need to have identified how intoxicated I used to be primarily based on how I used to be slurring my phrases.”
She recalled being so “extraordinarily drained” she merely uttered, “Positive” when a gaggle of males requested to snort ketamine off of her physique, based on her assertion. “[The] group of males all began pouring varied issues throughout my physique. I could not inform what they had been pouring on me, as I had my face lined with my arms.”
Jane Doe stated she slept till 10 a.m. and was pushed house by the identical Chi Phi member who had initially invited her to the home and who she stated had participated within the sexual acts.
By the point she awakened that Sunday afternoon, “I used to be made conscious that what had occurred to me at Chi Phi was turning into public data,” she wrote within the assertion. “It was made clear to me by a number of mates that the members of Chi Phi had been bragging about having an ‘eightsome’ with me. Some rumors stated it was ten individuals, however nonetheless, it was now apparent that everybody knew it was me that this had occurred to.”
Within the civil lawsuit, filed earlier this month, the lady alleged that she was drugged, assaulted and gang raped by seven former and present members of the Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell. The lawsuit has drawn outrage and requires an out of doors investigation into the matter.
Tompkins County District Lawyer Matthew Van Houten has reopened the case, however has additionally stated the allegations contained within the civil lawsuit are “dramatically completely different” than the lady’s assertion to police two years in the past.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday referred to as for an out of doors investigation into Cornell College’s campus tradition and its response to allegations by the scholar.
Cornell’s Chi Phi chapter was barred from campus after the alleged Oct. 19, 2024, incident, although not one of the people allegedly concerned confronted prison fees, based on the DA.
Cornell College has stated the previous scholar’s allegations had been investigated by the college’s Workplace of Civil Rights and the Workplace of Scholar Conduct and Neighborhood Requirements underneath the varsity’s Title IX insurance policies.
On its web site, the college stated the investigation was carried out over a number of months and included hearings earlier than a panel of educated school and workers.
“At its conclusion, the listening to panel issued a variety of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions from Cornell,” the college stated on its web site.
Cornell stated it took the stories “very critically” and carried out an intensive investigation however stated: “On the identical time, responding to an incident of this seriousness can’t finish when an investigation is accomplished or sanctions are imposed. We’ve got an obligation to ask what extra we are able to study, what we are able to do higher, and the way we are able to scale back the chance that something like this occurs once more.”
Attorneys for a number of fraternity brothers named as defendants within the civil lawsuit have denied the allegations within the grievance.
