A lady who says she was gang-raped at a Cornell College fraternity instructed the college’s investigators final 12 months that she “felt like bait” because the attackers had been “like lions round me,” in keeping with information from the college’s disciplinary investigation.
The paperwork, reviewed Friday by The Related Press, embrace excerpts of interviews Cornell’s investigators did with the girl and the boys she accused and shed extra mild on the college’s dealing with of the case.
Whereas closely redacted, the information provide a fuller however generally conflicting timeline of occasions and a glimpse at how the boys responded to the allegations. Some disputed the girl’s account and mentioned they weren’t concerned in any assault.
The girl, recognized in courtroom papers solely as Jane Doe, sued Cornell and 7 former college students final month, alleging she was given ketamine and repeatedly assaulted at a fraternity home in October 2024.
She went to campus police three weeks after the encounter and gave an in depth account of what occurred, however the native district lawyer determined to not file felony prices or push for extra investigation after reviewing a police abstract of her interview.
Solely the college’s investigation, beneath the federal Title IX regulation, persevered, with a objective of deciding self-discipline for the scholars concerned.
Lawsuit by one of many accused males reveals particulars on investigation
This week, a lawyer for one of many accused males filed paperwork from the college’s investigation in a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the college’s punishment and take away it from his tutorial report. They embrace a 99-page report on a campus listening to panel’s disciplinary findings and a abstract of occasions submitted by the college’s attorneys.
Although solely a fraction of the hundreds of pages amassed within the investigation, the information present the breadth of the college’s inquiry — together with 50 interviews with 32 witnesses and 12 days of hearings.
Late Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed Lawyer Normal Letitia James as a particular prosecutor to steer a renewed felony investigation, saying she had misplaced religion in Tompkins County District Lawyer Matthew Van Houten.
In keeping with the Title IX paperwork filed in courtroom, that are solely a portion of your complete investigation, the girl and several other of the boys gave investigators comparable accounts of drug use and sexual exercise that befell on the Chi Phi fraternity home — however differed sharply in how a lot of it was consensual.
Snapchat messages drew different males
The girl had been invited there by a fraternity member for whom she had lengthy held robust romantic emotions and sexual curiosity, in keeping with the disciplinary panel’s findings. The panel discovered that she initially consented to intercourse with that man and one in all his associates, although she later alleged in her lawsuit that she had been pressured into taking ketamine, marijuana and alcohol and was too intoxicated to consent.
Then different males started displaying up within the room, some drawn by a message one of many fraternity brothers despatched to a Snapchat group at 1:42 a.m. utilizing a vulgar time period to promote {that a} girl’s physique was freely out there. Later, one other particular person within the chat requested if the “store” was nonetheless open.
The girl instructed investigators that her intoxication had rendered her partly defenseless. She mentioned she remembered smoking marijuana and mentioned she knew she took ketamine, her first time doing so, however didn’t have an unbiased reminiscence of it. The drug, she mentioned, left her in a state of “imprecise consciousness.”
“You appear to be an working human being,” she instructed faculty investigators at a listening to in Could of 2025. “You don’t look lifeless or asleep essentially. So, lights are on, however no one’s dwelling. Your mind is just not performing at its correct stage.”
She mentioned a number of the males inhaled medicine off her unclothed physique.
“I felt like bait. I felt like lions round me. It simply was a completely debilitating place to be in,” she instructed investigators.
Accused scholar says he solely entered room for a wellness examine
One of many males the girl accused of snorting medicine off her physique — however not taking part in different parts of the assault — denied her account.
He instructed investigators he was within the room for not more than 5 minutes, and didn’t go there for intercourse.
“That was not our intentions in any respect. We had been simply testing to see if all the pieces” was OK, he mentioned.
He insisted that he didn’t see the girl bare at any time — she was beneath mattress coverings, he mentioned — and didn’t partake in drug use. He mentioned he sat on a sofa and chatted for a couple of minutes, then left after the girl and one other man there each indicated they had been all proper.
A Cornell disciplinary panel later cleared him of sexual assault or exploitation allegations, however discovered him liable for tried sexual exploitation as a result of it did not imagine his declare to have gone to the room for altruistic causes.
The fraternity member, who’s difficult Cornell’s disciplinary course of in courtroom, additionally posted within the Snapchat dialog, saying what was taking place within the room was not a joke, including: “Firsthand pov not a bit.” The coed later instructed investigators he didn’t keep in mind sending the message, in keeping with Cornell’s account.
Girl’s lawsuit seeks harder penalties
In her lawsuit, Jane Doe accused two of the opposite males who entered the room of performing intercourse acts on her with out her consent, whereas she was partially incapacitated. She accused one other man of kissing her with out her consent. In keeping with the Title IX paperwork, Jane Doe instructed investigators two different males stood on the foot of the mattress performing “extra like voyeurs than something.”
The lawsuit seeks to carry all seven males responsible for rape. She is asking for unspecified damages.
Cornell hasn’t detailed the outcomes of its investigation, however mentioned it resulted in some college students being expelled.
The person who filed the lawsuit difficult his punishment was allowed to remain at Cornell, however he was ordered to avoid the girl, take a category on sexual harassment and bystander intervention, and write a paper reflecting on the circumstances for which he was discovered accountable and embrace a proposal to coach different college students on stopping sexual harassment.
