Cornell students voice frustration at public hearing over rape case

New York state prosecutors have reopened an investigation into the alleged rape of a woman at Cornell University in 2024.

The woman, identified anonymously as Jane Doe in court documents, filed a civil lawsuit against the Ivy League university this month alleging she was drugged and raped at a fraternity house at the university.

She also alleged that Cornell failed to protect her or adequately punish the men involved.

Cornell has said it supported presenting the case to a grand jury, while rejecting claims it failed to punish those involved.

Watch: Why an investigation into alleged frat house gang rape is reopening

Jane Doe alleges in her civil lawsuit that, on the night of 19 October 2024, seven men from Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity chapter assaulted her for hours in an incident involving alcohol and the drug ketamine. She was a 20-year-old Cornell undergraduate at the time.

Jane Doe said in her lawsuit that she was intoxicated during the alleged incident and could not provide consent.

She said she left her sorority sisters after drinking that night and "stumbled alone" to the Chi Phi fraternity house in the city of Ithaca to see a male friend.

The lawsuit alleges sexual assault and battery, negligence, breach of contract and violations of New York's Human Rights Law.

It was filed against the university, fraternity sorority and men involved in the alleged attack, who have been dubbed the "Cornell Seven".

Doe also alleges that the men were "afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays".

'Ashamed': Cornell students gather to voice anger over alleged gang rape

Cornell case highlights 'draining' maze for victims to report campus sex assaults

Doe's lawyer has said she was "traumatised, numb and unable to function or accept the horror of what had happened" in the days after the assault, which she reported to Cornell University Police on 8 November 2024.

Doe's lawyer has said two of those involved were expelled. He told CBS that the woman dropped out of university after the alleged assault.

Cornell in Ithaca, New York, is an elite US university

Jane Doe's lawsuit contains an image purported to be from a fraternity group chat in which a participant alerted other members, in vulgar terms, to the potential for a sexual encounter with Doe.

Cornell University said its police department provided an image of the Snapchat group, titled Chi Phi Actives, to prosecutors as evidence in November 2024.

The members are named in the chat and discuss a "free" sexual encounter with Jane Doe, using coarse language, in the early hours of 20 October 2024.

CBS News New York has also published excerpts of additional text messages reportedly exchanged between one of the defendants and a woman who appears to be Jane Doe.

The messages were reportedly sent two days after the alleged assault.

In one message, one of the men appeared to apologise for "how things went down". He said his memory was "kinda fuzzy", and 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".

The woman in the text chain replied saying her memory was "super clouded too" and that they were all intoxicated.

She also wrote that "non(e) of the sexual stuff was illegal" and that she liked being with him and another man.

Doe suggested they smoke together again but leave out "the extra five billion men and ketamine".

Cornell University's Chi Phi fraternity house in September 2026

Doe said she reported the incident to Cornell University Police two weeks after it happened.

Shortly afterwards, Cornell University issued a public statement regarding the allegations, which it called "serious and deeply disturbing".

It said the campus police department was investigating and that it had suspended the local chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity, as well as "a number of students".

Cornell also said it had opened an internal investigation, as well as a civil rights inquiry under the Title IX law, which bars sex discrimination in schools that receive funding from the federal government, including most universities.

Following the new lawsuit, the university disputed Doe's allegation it did not adequately investigate or punish the alleged perpetrators.

The university said the matter was referred to a "panel of trained faculty and staff" that issued "a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions from Cornell".

Cornell did not deny the punishment for some of those involved included writing an essay but said "none of the individuals charged were offered the opportunity to write essays as a sole consequence of their involvement".

The university also said that "temporary suspensions and other restrictive measures" were issued when the conduct was reported and that the events that took place on its campus in 2024 "were appalling then and remain so now".

On 1 October, New York state Governor Kathy Hochul said that she had called the university president, who had agreed to allow an independent investigation into what happened.

Hochul later vowed to close a legal loophole allowing offenders to avoid rape charges if their victims were willingly intoxicated.

She has appointed state Attorney General Letitia James to take over investigating the case, replacing Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten.

James herself has said she will review evidence and pursue prosecutions if necessary.

Doe named Chi Phi fraternity as one of the defendants in her civil lawsuit, alleging she suffered physical and emotional damage as a result of their actions.

Trey Robb, interim executive director of the Chi Phi fraternity, said the organisation had expelled the accused members of Cornell's chapter.

"Our records confirm that just three days after 'Jane Doe' filed a police report, the Xi chapter voted unanimously to remove the accused members from its rolls," Robb said.

"The chapter also recommended that our national fraternity permanently expel them, and our Grand Council did so at a subsequent meeting."

The Xi Chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity was closed in 2024 and remains barred from campus.

The county's top prosecutor said on Monday that his office would reopen a criminal inquiry into the alleged rape.

Once appropriate charges were determined, the case would be prosecuted through a grand jury, said Van Houten.

In the US legal system, prosecutors convene grand juries to weigh evidence and testimony, and eventually vote on whether they merit criminal charges.

The prosecutor said that, at the time of the alleged assault two years ago, his office concluded that evidence from the woman's statement to authorities did not meet the legal bar to bring charges.

He said he contacted Doe and her lawyers for more information as he prepared to bring the case to a grand jury.

In his statement, Van Houten included a summary of what Doe told the Cornell University Police Department in 2024 after the alleged attack, noting it differed from the allegations laid out in the lawsuit.

"Jane Doe's sworn statement in November of 2024 did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped," Van Houten said in a statement on Monday.

"On the contrary, Jane Doe's statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious and consensual."

A Cornell University spokesperson told the BBC its police department shared a "lengthy police investigation report" with the Tompkins County District Attorney's Office.

"I'm very shocked" - College students react to Cornell University rape investigation

New reports have detailed what Doe reported to Cornell University's police following the incident.

CBS News New York, external obtained a transcript of Doe's interviews with campus police that began on 14 November - more than three weeks after the incident.

She tells police of the initial sexual encounter: "I was pretty OK with all of this."

But the outlet reports that she said of what happened later: "I can say with 100% confidence I was raped."

ABC News, external also obtained a police report from 15 November, in which Doe said that, during one of the later encounters that night, "I felt like I was unable to make any decision because of how intoxicated I was".

"To me, that felt like coercion," she said in her statement.

The BBC has contacted Van Houten's office and Doe's attorney.

Van Houten told CBS News he had never seen the transcript of the interview with campus police.

He also told the New York Times that he hoped to speak to Doe "to discuss new evidence that exists", external and that he did not believe the allegations in the civil lawsuit meet the legal bar to bring charges.

Van Houten did note that "the significance of it means that she believes that crimes were committed, and we want to get to the bottom of that".

If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, you could speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support. Details of help available in many countries can be found at Befrienders Worldwide., external

A list of UK organisations that can help is available here.

Why an investigation into alleged frat house gang rape is reopening