The previous Cornell College pupil who alleged she was gang raped in 2024 at a campus fraternity home mentioned she felt “unsupported and disbelieved” by the varsity’s president, Michael Kotlikoff, in response to a letter she despatched earlier this month to the college senate.
In her letter, the scholar, often called Jane Doe, mentioned she needed to share a “second-hand account” earlier than the college senate launched a resolution of no confidence in Kotlikoff and the college administration.
The letter, obtained by ABC Information after it was first obtained by The New York Occasions, described a dialog Kotlikoff had with the president of Jane Doe’s sorority shortly after Jane Doe reported the alleged assault to campus police.
“President Kotlikoff’s preliminary response was alongside the strains of, ‘Why did she wait so lengthy to report it?'” Jane Doe’s letter mentioned, explaining that her sorority sister “interpreted his query as an expression of doubt within the veracity of my story.”
The alleged hourslong assault occurred over the night time of Oct. 19 into the morning of Oct. 20, 2024. Jane Doe reported to campus police on Nov. 8, 2024, that she had been raped by a group of men on the Chi Phi fraternity home.
“When the then-Tri Delta President relayed this dialog to me, I felt unsupported and disbelieved by President Kotlikoff,” Jane Doe wrote in her letter. “It diminished my confidence within the administration’s capacity to strategy my expertise with the understanding, sensitivity, and equity I had hoped for and anticipated from what had been my dream faculty.”
A spokesperson for Cornell College disputed how the letter characterised Kotlikoff’s comment.
Chalk messages studying “1300 reviews in residence halls” and “No Justice” are written on a sidewalk on the Ag Quad in Ithaca, New York, October 14, 2026.
Matt Burkhartt/Reuters
“The second-hand account of the query requested by President Kotlikoff in a January 2025 assembly within the letter is inaccurate, based mostly on a documented first-hand account,” the spokesperson mentioned in an announcement offered to ABC Information. “The query ‘why did it take so lengthy for the assault to be reported’ was directed at bystanders who didn’t use Cornell’s nameless tip line, regardless of ongoing social media exercise concerning the incident in October 2024. He was not questioning Jane Doe’s reporting.”
In her letter, Jane Doe, who’s now 22 and who dropped out of Cornell, mentioned she needed to share the knowledge for consciousness. She didn’t provide an opinion on how the college senate ought to vote on the decision of no confidence.
“You will need to me that the College Senate be made conscious of this letter in order that its members could make an knowledgeable selection about how they want to take into account or act upon the knowledge it comprises,” Jane Doe wrote.
She has filed a civil swimsuit towards the boys and the college alleging that she had been drugged and raped. All seven fraternity brothers named within the swimsuit have denied wrongdoing and no legal fees have been filed within the case.
On Tuesday, a former president of the Chi Phi fraternity was dropped from Jane Doe’s civil swimsuit after he was mistakenly recognized because the chapter president on the time of the alleged assault.
In a associated growth, an unbiased investigator will overview the Tompkins County District Legal professional’s dealing with of sexual assault circumstances, following the DA’s choice to not convey fees within the Jane Doe case.
The Tompkins County legislature on Tuesday authorized a decision authorizing an audit of the prosecutor’s workplace and calling for coverage modifications to stop the same state of affairs, resembling requiring prosecutors meet with the sufferer earlier than reaching a charging choice and mandating a full overview of accessible proof.
“Members of the local people have expressed deep concern and lack of belief that the District Legal professional’s Workplace will train sound judgment and discretion in investigating and appropriately prosecuting sexual assault circumstances,” the decision mentioned.
Tompkins County District Legal professional Matthew Van Houten beforehand defended his dealing with of the case, arguing the allegations on the time — which he claimed differed from the claims in Jane Doe’s lawsuit this yr — didn’t help a legal prosecution.
“Jane Doe’s sworn assertion in November of 2024 didn’t allege that she was drugged towards her will or gang raped. Quite the opposite, Jane Doe’s assertion described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, acutely aware, and consensual,” he wrote in an announcement final month.
ABC Information has reached out to Van Houten for remark.
Forward of the vote, Van Houten, who was on the assembly, mentioned he was “100% in favor of transparency and completely prepared to cooperate with no matter it is known as, whether or not it is an audit or overview.”
After Jane Doe filed her civil swimsuit alleging she was raped and drugged by a number of males on the fraternity, Van Houten reopened the case; nonetheless, Governor Kathy Hochul appointed New York Legal professional Common Letitia James to function a special prosecutor within the matter after dropping confidence in Van Houten.
Cornell can also be conducting an inside probe of its response to the allegations.
