Before the civil lawsuit was filed, Cornell's Student Assembly placed the reported assault into the university's own public record through Resolution 17.

The resolution refers directly to the Crime Alert sent to the Cornell community on November 8, 2024. It says the alert described a Cornell undergraduate who had been sexually assaulted and coerced into consuming ketamine and other drugs in the 100 block of Edgemoor Lane in Ithaca.

The resolution was adopted by the Student Assembly and its official Cornell page lists its status as acknowledged by the president.

Less than three weeks after the November 8 Crime Alert, then- Interim President Michael Kotlikoff issued a university-wide statement addressing the reports from the Chi Phi house.

Cornell said that a number of students had been temporarily suspended and that Chi Phi remained temporarily suspended while the criminal investigation continued. The university also said its student-conduct and Title IX offices were reviewing the information that had been reported about events at the fraternity.

The statement documents Cornell's response at the time, nearly two years before Jane Doe filed the civil complaint now at the center of this site.

Cornell's official organization scorecard identifies Chi Phi's Xi chapter at 107 Edgemoor Lane, identifies the fraternity house as university-owned, and currently lists the chapter's recognition status as Interim Suspension.

The 2024 allegations did not arrive at a chapter with a spotless disciplinary record. Cornell's own organization scorecard documents repeated findings against Chi Phi's Xi chapter years before Jane Doe's report, including hazing, alcohol violations, overcrowding, inadequate sober monitoring and broader organizational misconduct.

The students occupying the house changed over time. The chapter did not. Cornell treated these matters as organizational violations, imposed chapter-wide sanctions and, in several instances, required education or corrective measures reaching the membership as a whole. That history is relevant when examining the culture and risk-management record of the organization itself rather than pretending October 2024 appeared out of nowhere.

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten first announced that his office was reopening its review of the alleged October 2024 assault after the September 2026 civil lawsuit brought additional evidence and renewed scrutiny to the case. He said prosecutors intended to prepare the matter for presentation to a grand jury.

On October 1, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a major change in who will control that criminal review. Hochul said newly released information raised serious questions about both the Cornell University Police investigation and the earlier decision not to prosecute. She signed an executive order appointing the Office of New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor for this case.

The Attorney General's office confirmed the appointment the same evening. Under the order, James's office will now oversee the criminal investigation and, if the evidence warrants it, may present the case to a grand jury.

CBS News obtained the transcript of Jane Doe's detailed interviews with Cornell University Police on November 14 and 15, 2024. Subsequent reporting described that interview record as roughly 120 pages, compared with a much shorter written statement that was provided to prosecutors.

The transcript shows Jane Doe distinguishing sexual activity she initially described as consensual from conduct she said happened later. She described repeated pressure as coercion, said she had been hit and said she became “completely and totally incapacitated.”

Van Houten said he had not seen the complete interview transcript when his office declined to prosecute the case in 2024. He said prosecutors instead relied on a shorter statement prepared through Cornell Police, which did not contain Jane Doe's unequivocal statement that she had been raped.

After the transcript became public, Van Houten told WSKG that, if the reported transcript was accurate, it would have changed the investigation and that his office should have been told about material from Jane Doe's police interview that was missing from the shorter statement.

Newly reported Cornell investigation records provide a much fuller chronology of the weeks between the night at Chi Phi and Jane Doe's report to campus police. They show that her understanding of what had happened changed over a short period while she was also dealing with physical symptoms, campus rumors and increasing distress.

According to the records, one of the men later named in the lawsuit apologized soon after the incident for how the night had unfolded and said that he and another fraternity member regretted being too intoxicated to stop the situation before it got out of hand. Jane Doe initially said she did not think the sexual activity had been illegal.

The records also document actions Jane Doe took before the 2026 lawsuit. Reporting says she preserved the dress she had been wearing rather than washing it, photographed bruising she attributed to the night, went to Cornell Health two days later for UTI and STI-related care and described the infection as having occurred in a “traumatic way.”

She also wrote that she had been given more ketamine than she could remember and reminded Newell that she had said she felt uncomfortable and did not know the people in the room. On November 7, the newly reported records say she went to an Ithaca emergency room and requested a rape-kit examination. She reported the incident to Cornell University Police the following day.

During the detailed police interview that followed, Jane Doe explicitly said she had been raped. The chronology places her medical care, evidence preservation, nonconsensual description and rape-kit request in 2024, nearly two years before she filed the civil lawsuit.

Cornell initially published an FAQ stating that Cornell University Police had shared “all investigatory information” with the Tompkins County District Attorney's Office in 2024. That statement conflicted with Van Houten's public assertion that his office had never received the fraternity Snapchat evidence reproduced in the civil complaint.

The conflict widened when Van Houten said he also had never seen Jane Doe's complete police-interview transcript and had instead relied on a much shorter written statement.

Cornell then removed the “all investigatory information” language from its FAQ. After WSKG reported on that deletion, Cornell changed the page again on October 1. The new language specifically says CUPD shared Jane Doe's sworn statement and the Snapchat screenshot with the district attorney.

The latest Cornell wording is narrower than its original claim. It identifies two specific items — the sworn statement and Snapchat screenshot — but does not say the district attorney received Jane Doe's complete police-interview transcript.

On October 2, The Cornell Daily Sun published its own comparison of the FAQ versions and documented at least two edits to Cornell's answer. The same day, after the case had been transferred to the Attorney General, Van Houten said he supported the appointment and stated that his office had not been provided the full picture by the University.

Four days after filing her civil lawsuit, Jane Doe spoke publicly to The Cornell Daily Sun about the impact the alleged assault has continued to have on her life.

She described what happened to her as horrific and said that, nearly two years later, she continued to carry the impact of the experience every day and night.

Jane Doe also spoke about what happened after she reported the alleged assault. She said she was deeply disappointed by the lack of support she received from the student community and described being criticized and ostracized during a time when she needed compassion, support and care.

Her public comments add her own voice to a record that had previously been documented largely through the university, law enforcement and the allegations contained in her civil complaint.

On September 21, 2026, Cornell publicly confirmed that its investigation into the alleged 2024 incident at the Chi Phi house had concluded.

Vice President for University Relations Kyle Kimball said Cornell's Office of Civil Rights and Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards investigated and adjudicated the allegations under university policies.

Cornell also confirmed that the Xi chapter of Chi Phi continues to be barred from campus.

Cornell declined to disclose disciplinary consequences involving individual students. The university cited federal student-privacy law and said it is prohibited from publicly releasing specific information about individual disciplinary responses.

Cornell stated that violations of university policy can result in sanctions up to and including suspension or expulsion, but did not publicly identify what sanctions were imposed on any individual student connected to the investigation.

Cornell first said its completed Title IX and student-conduct process resulted in a range of sanctions that included expulsions and suspensions, while declining to identify individual outcomes.

CBS News later reported that President Michael Kotlikoff gave student government a more precise breakdown on September 29: two of the seven were expelled, two were suspended for at least two semesters, one had graduated before Cornell could impose a sanction, and two were found not responsible for sexual misconduct.

Cornell still has not publicly matched those outcomes to individual names. One individual outcome has now been disclosed by a defendant's own attorney: Tara Davis said Gillio Lopes was suspended by Cornell and received additional educational sanctions.

Davis also said Lopes had sexual contact with Jane Doe but maintains that it was consensual. That defense account is addressed separately in the defendant-statements record below.

The Ithaca Police Department said the alleged October 2024 incident was never reported to IPD and that the department learned about the allegations recently through media coverage.

That statement is significant because the Sept. 14 civil complaint states, upon information and belief, that an Ithaca Police Department investigation remained ongoing.

The public record now shows that Jane Doe reported the incident to Cornell University Police, the district attorney says his office relied on the Cornell University Police investigation, and Ithaca Police says it did not receive the case.

Jane Doe's civil complaint says she reported the incident to Cornell University Police on or about November 8, 2024. Cornell issued a Crime Alert that day and temporarily suspended the fraternity connected to the report.

Cornell Police conducted a lengthy interview with Jane Doe on November 14 and 15. Reporting on the transcript shows that she told the investigator she had been raped, described coercion and said she had become completely incapacitated.

Van Houten later said his office relied on Cornell Police's work when declining charges in 2024, did not conduct a separate investigation and did not receive Jane Doe's complete interview transcript. He also said his office did not receive the fraternity Snapchat evidence.

Cornell's public account has changed during the renewed scrutiny. Its FAQ initially said CUPD provided prosecutors with all investigatory information, then removed that language, and on October 1 specifically stated that CUPD shared Jane Doe's sworn statement and the Snapchat screenshot with the district attorney.

Ithaca Police has said the incident was never reported to its department. Van Houten reopened the criminal case in late September 2026, but on October 1 Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed the Office of Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor. James's office now controls the renewed criminal investigation.

Cornell's Office of Civil Rights preserves the student procedures under Policy 6.4 that became effective Aug. 5, 2024 — before the alleged October 2024 incident and before Jane Doe's report.

Cornell identifies those procedures as the process applicable to student respondents accused of sexual misconduct during the period before the university adopted newer procedures in 2026.

That policy record gives readers a contemporaneous framework for evaluating Cornell's written procedures separately from the allegations in Jane Doe's lawsuit about how the university actually handled her case.

Cornell publicly publishes anonymized tables describing formal complaints handled under Policy 6.4. The tables identify types of alleged misconduct, resolution methods, outcomes and sanctions or remedies in prior academic years.

The university's published records show that sexual-assault matters have resulted in a range of outcomes, including findings of responsibility, findings of no responsibility, dismissals, suspensions, written reprimands, directed studies and other sanctions or remedies.

These tables provide institutional context for Cornell's disciplinary system, but they do not identify the parties in the underlying matters.

In March 2026, Cornell's Presidential Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault issued its final report examining sexual assault among undergraduate students and recommending changes to prevention, education, campus culture and institutional response.

Among the report's most striking findings was a major difference between women who were affiliated with Greek life and women who were not.

The task force also reported that fraternity chapter houses accounted for 17% of the locations identified for reported sexual assaults in the 2025 survey. Residence halls were the most commonly identified location at 29%, followed by off-campus residences at 23%.

In response, the task force recommended required annual in-person training on consent and sexual citizenship for prospective new members and active fraternity and sorority members.

It also recommended annual in-person, situation-based training for fraternity and sorority leaders because of the role those students play in shaping chapter culture and responding to potentially dangerous situations.

Cornell released the results of its 2025 Survey of Sexual Assault and Related Misconduct on November 4, 2025.

The university reported an increase in the percentage of respondents who said they had experienced nonconsensual sexual contact since arriving at Cornell.

Cornell also reported that nearly half of respondents — 49% — said they had experienced sexual or gender-based harassment. That figure had been 45% in the university's 2023 survey.

Cornell said many students who did not seek formal help indicated that they believed what happened was not serious enough to report or address through official channels.

The university said the results would be used to guide prevention programs, support services and its broader effort to address sexual violence on campus.

One week after the reported sexual assault and drugging that led Cornell to suspend Chi Phi, the university's Interfraternity Council voted unanimously to suspend fraternity social activity for the weekend.

The Cornell Daily Sun reported that approximately 100 fraternity leaders representing all 29 IFC chapters met for several hours to discuss the Chi Phi suspension and the fraternity system's response.

In addition to the temporary suspension of social events, the IFC unanimously approved mandatory sexual-assault-prevention training for every fraternity beginning the following semester.

The response came in November 2024, while the criminal and university investigations connected to the Chi Phi report were still underway and nearly two years before Jane Doe filed her civil lawsuit.

On November 8, 2024, Cornell distributed a Crime Alert to the university community after an undergraduate student reported being sexually assaulted and coerced into consuming ketamine and other drugs.

The alert said the reported incident involved several males and occurred at a fraternity in the 100 block of Edgemoor Lane in Ithaca.

Cornell University Police had been notified by the individual that day. According to the alert, the fraternity connected to the report was placed on temporary suspension effective immediately while the investigation continued.

The initial Crime Alert did not publicly identify which fraternity had been suspended. At the time, The Cornell Daily Sun noted that the two fraternity houses on the 100 block of Edgemoor Lane were Chi Phi and Lambda Chi Alpha.

Lambda Chi Alpha's president told The Sun that the chapter had no knowledge of the situation. Cornell declined to identify the fraternity under investigation when asked by the newspaper.

Subsequent Cornell communications confirmed that Chi Phi was the fraternity that had been suspended. By November 26, Cornell publicly stated that Chi Phi remained temporarily suspended while the criminal investigation continued.

In an editorial titled Cornell Won't, We Will, the Cornell Daily Sun editorial board centered Jane Doe's loss of safety and education and argued that student safety is fundamental to the university's educational mission.

The editorial raised questions about transparency surrounding Cornell's Title IX process, the duration of temporary suspensions and what information the university has made available about the handling of the case.

The editorial is opinion, not an official Cornell finding. It is included here because it documents a significant campus response to Jane Doe's allegations and the university's handling of them.

During a Sept. 27 town hall in Ithaca, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez discussed Jane Doe's lawsuit and described the case as part of what she characterized as a broader culture enabling sexual violence at elite institutions.

Ocasio-Cortez focused on the educational consequences Jane Doe says she experienced after the alleged assault and criticized institutions that, in her view, protect spaces in which sexual violence can be normalized.

Cornell issued a new statement the following day clarifying that its completed Title IX process resulted in expulsions and suspensions and disputing the suggestion that essays were the sole consequence imposed on respondents.

By Sept. 28, the case had moved well beyond campus and local reporting. Reuters, the Associated Press, NPR and other national outlets reported on the reopened criminal investigation, the planned grand-jury presentation and Cornell's confirmation that its internal process resulted in expulsions and suspensions.

The national reporting also documented the dispute between prosecutors and Jane Doe's attorney over the original investigation and what evidence was available to authorities in 2024.

This section is included as a media archive rather than as a substitute for the original court filing, Cornell records or law-enforcement statements collected elsewhere on this page.

Gov. Kathy Hochul called for a transparent, independent review of Cornell's response to the allegations arising from the Chi Phi case and asked that outside counsel examine whether the University met its obligations to protect students and pursue justice.

Hochul later said she had spoken with Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff and that Cornell agreed to move forward with the outside review. The Cornell Daily Sun reported the agreement on October 1.

As of the October 1 evening update, Cornell had not publicly identified the outside counsel or announced the complete scope, process or timetable for that institutional review.

Before the special-prosecutor appointment, Attorney General Letitia James's office had already confirmed a review of Cornell's response to Jane Doe's allegations and the University's handling of the Chi Phi case.

On October 1, Gov. Kathy Hochul separately appointed the Attorney General's Office as special prosecutor for the criminal investigation. James's office confirmed that it had accepted responsibility for the investigation and said the process would be guided by the facts and law.

The special-prosecutor role is broader and legally distinct from an institutional review. The Attorney General can now investigate the alleged criminal conduct itself and, if warranted, present evidence to a grand jury.

Chi Phi's national organization has now publicly described disciplinary action taken inside the fraternity shortly after Jane Doe reported the incident to Cornell Police in November 2024.

Interim Executive Director Trey Robb said the Xi chapter voted unanimously to remove the accused members from its rolls three days after Jane Doe filed her police report. He said the chapter also recommended permanent national expulsion and that Chi Phi's Grand Council later approved those expulsions.

The statement is distinct from Cornell's university disciplinary process. Cornell has said its own process produced expulsions and suspensions but has not publicly identified which individual respondents received which university sanction.

Ithaca Mayor Robert Cantelmo called for an immediate moratorium on student event and special-event permits, including Greek Life events, in response to concerns raised by the Chi Phi case.

Cantelmo said the pause should remain until Cornell accounts for how it handles sexual-violence cases and publicly releases updated safety standards for student events.

He also criticized the university's response to the reported 2024 incident and pointed to the fact that the Ithaca Police Department says it was never contacted about the case.

The Cornell Rugby Club publicly addressed the lawsuit after The Cornell Daily Sun verified four people named in the case on older club rosters.

Former Chi Phi president Orazio Petito and defendants Matthew Ingalls, Winston Lee and Scott Kretzschmar appeared on previous rugby rosters. The club said players known to be connected with the alleged events were permanently removed from both the team and its alumni network once that connection was established.

Cornell Rugby said its thoughts were with the victim and described the alleged conduct as horrific and fundamentally inconsistent with the club's values.

In a September 29 interview with People, Van Houten said that something untoward happened at the Chi Phi house and made clear that he did not view the conduct described in the case as acceptable.

He specifically condemned the fraternity group-chat language as morally disgusting and said his renewed investigation would examine whether conduct that was plainly wrong also satisfied the elements of a criminal offense under New York law.

Those remarks remain part of the record explaining his office's position immediately after reopening the case. They are no longer a statement of who controls the investigation: on October 1, Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed the New York Attorney General's Office as special prosecutor.

The New York Times obtained hundreds of pages from Cornell's internal investigation, including interviews with six of the seven men later named in Jane Doe's lawsuit. The Times reported that four of the men acknowledged sexual contact with Jane Doe while maintaining that the interactions were consensual; the others denied sexual encounters. The Times described their accounts as sometimes contradictory to one another and generally at odds with Jane Doe's account to police.

Jonathan Newell told Cornell investigators that Matthew Ingalls invited him into a threesome. Newell said he and Ingalls had consumed alcohol, marijuana and ketamine heavily enough that both vomited.

Winston Lee told investigators that he snorted a line of ketamine from Jane Doe's body. He said she attempted to initiate sexual activity, claimed he initially stepped back and later acknowledged participating in a threesome that he maintained was consensual.

Gillio Lopes acknowledged sexual contact with Jane Doe but said she initiated it. He told investigators he later became uncomfortable and left for McDonald's, and said he was embarrassed about what had happened. On October 1, his attorney Tara Davis publicly repeated that Lopes had sexual contact with Jane Doe while maintaining that it was consensual.

Scott Kretzschmar told investigators that Newell's Snapchat message left him “befuddled” before he and Scott Norris entered the room. Norris said the message made him “somewhat concerned” but that he interpreted it as crude humor. Both denied sexual activity with Jane Doe.

Diego Sarabia told investigators he was “immensely concerned” when he entered the room because he had never seen anything like it in four years living at the house. He said his concern later eased after people in the room told him to enter.

The Cornell Daily Sun reported that Cornell's directory continued to list Winston Lee and Gillio Lopes as current students in the College of Arts and Sciences after the lawsuit became public.

The same directory check listed Diego Sarabia as an alumnus. At that time, the Sun said it could not confirm the academic status of Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Scott Norris or Scott Kretzschmar through the directory.

There is now stronger public evidence concerning Lopes's physical presence at Cornell. TMZ published video on October 1 showing Lopes on the Cornell campus while another student confronted him about the case. The video documents that he was physically on campus that morning.

The video does not by itself establish that Lopes attended a particular class that day. It does, however, move his status beyond an online directory listing by documenting his presence on Cornell's campus after the lawsuit became public.

Cornell alumna Kat Martin told NPR that she became involved with a campus sexual-safety organization after being sexually assaulted during her freshman year.

Looking back on the broader social environment, Martin said students had normalized both violence and the fear of being drugged. She said heavy drinking and drug use remained central to the social culture she experienced at Cornell.

Her account is not presented as evidence about what happened to Jane Doe. It is included because it describes how another Cornell student experienced the campus climate before the 2026 lawsuit.

Olympia Hall, a current Cornell student and co-president of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Safety Club, spoke to NPR about the role fraternities play in the university's social life.

Hall described fraternities as holding substantial power over access to social spaces and said that imbalance can create an unhealthy dynamic for students navigating campus life.

Her comments provide a current student perspective on the broader environment surrounding the case rather than a factual claim about the individual defendants.

The backlash surrounding Chi Phi did not begin with the September 2026 lawsuit. Days after Cornell's November 2024 Crime Alert, the Cornell Daily Sun editorial board argued that the Chi Phi report was part of a recurring fraternity problem at Cornell and called for the university to ban fraternities entirely.

Around the same time, a student activist group calling itself Riot Moon vandalized Chi Phi and another fraternity. In a statement reported by The Sun, the group said its actions were a response to what it viewed as a broader culture of sexual violence in fraternities.

CornellSeven.com is not endorsing property damage or adopting the group's sweeping claims as factual findings. The episode is included because it documents that some Cornell students were already framing the Chi Phi report as part of a larger campus problem in 2024.

Cornell's Student Assembly held its public hearing on sexual violence and institutional accountability on October 1. The Associated Press reported that students and other community members spoke for more than two and a half hours about Cornell's handling of sexual-assault reports, campus safety and the Chi Phi case.

Several speakers described their own experiences reporting sexual violence. One student told AP that after reporting an assault she encountered extensive paperwork, little guidance, few updates and a broader sense of helplessness in dealing with the institution.

AP reported that the Student Assembly passed several resolutions seeking greater transparency around Cornell's handling of sexual-assault cases, a review of consent and substance-use education during orientation, and free Cornell Health counseling for survivors.

Those measures correspond to Resolution 15 on institutional transparency and accountability, Resolution 16 on consent and substance-use training materials, and Resolution 17 on free counseling for survivors.

A letter published by The Cornell Daily Sun says more than 1,000 Cornell alumni signed onto demands for changes in the University's handling of sexual-assault reports.

The letter calls for greater transparency about disciplinary procedures and outcomes, clearer standards governing suspensions, stronger survivor support and additional institutional reforms.

The letter is advocacy rather than an official finding. Its relevance to the case record is the scale of alumni pressure now directed at Cornell following Jane Doe's lawsuit and the renewed scrutiny of the University's 2024 response.

Sen. Chuck Schumer called for what he described as a truly independent and exhaustive investigation into the handling of the case and said that every failure should be examined.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called the allegations serious and horrific and argued that personnel handling campus sexual-assault reports need specialized training. She also used the case to renew attention to proposed federal campus-safety legislation.

A planned Cornell Institute of Politics and Global Affairs event featuring Rep. Nancy Pelosi was canceled one day after it was announced.

The Cornell Daily Sun reported that a source familiar with the cancellation said it was related to the ongoing Chi Phi situation. The event had been planned for Oct. 15 in New York City.

The cancellation does not add evidence about the underlying allegations. It is included because it documents the expanding reputational and institutional consequences surrounding Cornell's handling of the case.

The screenshot reproduced in the civil complaint is not the full Snapchat exchange. On October 2, multiple national outlets reported that they had obtained or reviewed additional portions of the Chi Phi Actives conversation from the night of the alleged assault.

CBS News reported that a photograph of Jane Doe with another man was shared into the group during the night. Immediately before the photo, a participant wrote, “Like you can walk in and whip it out.” Immediately after the photo, another participant asked “Shop still open?” and received the response “Yeah.”

ABC News reported that it obtained an extended version of the group chat. ABC said the fraternity brother who invited Jane Doe to the house sent a photograph that appeared to show her in the bedroom. Another participant asked, “Are you guys at least naked??” and the inviting brother later wrote, “Boys come whip it out.” The Washington Post separately reported that a screen recording it obtained also contained the photograph and additional messages.

Cornell's Title IX records add important context about the size of the audience. CBS reported that a participant identified as “Male 6” told investigators that about 50 fraternity members were on that particular Snapchat thread. ABC described the extended chat as being shared among more than 50 fraternity brothers.

CBS News reported that it obtained 565 pages of transcripts from Cornell's Title IX investigation. Cornell's 2025 process included about 50 interviews with 32 witnesses. A CBS New York report on the same record said the material included Jane Doe's account, interviews with six of the seven men named in the lawsuit and 20 witnesses.

One new detail concerns ketamine at the beginning of the night. A man identified by CBS as “Male 2” told Cornell investigators that he and “Male 1” took ketamine during the initial sexual encounter but that Jane Doe declined the drug at that point.

Another witness told investigators that one of the accused men called her the day after the alleged assault and asked her to make sure a friend did not say anything about what she thought might have happened the night before. The witness said the caller added that another fraternity member was very concerned. CBS did not publicly identify the accused man who allegedly made that call.

According to the transcript, that man initially denied having the call. In later written corrections, he acknowledged speaking to the student about not spreading rumors. In the same interview, he described the fraternity brothers' approach to the rumors as “just deny.”

A friend of the witness and her roommate said they later went to Cornell Police. One said she wrote a witness statement. CBS reported that the disposition of that statement is not referenced in the 565 pages the network obtained.

ABC News also reported that the first police report memorialized Jane Doe's allegation as a report that she had been raped by 8–10 men at the Chi Phi fraternity house. ABC reviewed video from Cornell's investigation showing the bedroom weeks later, including discarded items, alcohol containers and a fentanyl test on the floor.

Newly unsealed court records provide a separate window into Cornell's disciplinary process involving Scott Kretzschmar. Reporting on the records says he challenged Cornell's decision after a 12-day evidentiary hearing and an unsuccessful University appeal.

The disciplinary panel did not find Kretzschmar responsible for the charged offenses of sexual assault or sexual exploitation. It instead found him responsible for attempted sexual exploitation, based on findings connected to his seeing the fraternity Snapchat message and then entering the room.

Kretzschmar has argued in court that Cornell did not give him sufficient notice that attempted sexual exploitation was an offense he could be found responsible for in the proceeding. A lower court dismissed his challenge, and reporting says he filed a notice of appeal.

At an October 2 news conference, Attorney General Letitia James said her office would review the facts, gather evidence, interview witnesses and pursue prosecutions if the evidence warrants them. James did not announce a charging decision and said a comprehensive investigation would take time.

District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said he supports James's appointment and will cooperate. He also said it had become clear that his office had not been provided the full picture by Cornell University.

Gov. Kathy Hochul used the same news conference to criticize the earlier handling of the case by campus police and the county prosecutor. She also announced support for changing New York law governing sexual activity with people whose ability to consent is compromised by voluntary intoxication.

The presidents of all 22 Cornell Interfraternity Council fraternities voted unanimously to cancel all social fraternity events for the weekend, according to internal communications obtained by The Cornell Daily Sun.

The Sun reported that the decision was made in response to the renewed attention surrounding Jane Doe's lawsuit and the Chi Phi case. Multiple people close to the decision confirmed the vote to the newspaper.

Twenty Cornell student organizations announced a “Justice for Survivors” protest for October 5 at 4:30 p.m. on Ho Plaza. The organizers' published demands include stronger sexual-assault prevention, mandatory training, trauma-informed training for Cornell University Police, institutional accountability and changes to Cornell's disciplinary system.

The Cornell chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which says it represents faculty, researchers, librarians and instructors, separately issued a statement against sexual violence and called on the Cornell community to join the October 5 gathering.

The timing is stark. An archived Cornell University Police Daily Crime Log shows that CUPD made a drug-related arrest at the Chi Phi house at 107 Edgemoor Lane and referred an individual to Cornell's Office of Student Conduct roughly 22 hours before Jane Doe says the assault began there.

The Cornell Daily Sun reported that Chi Phi had been registered to host a party the night before and was also registered for another event later on October 19. Cornell did not place the chapter on interim suspension before that later event. Jane Doe's complaint says she arrived at Chi Phi at approximately 11 p.m. that night and was subsequently pressured to consume alcohol and ketamine before being sexually assaulted.

The same reporting cites a Cornell Title IX hearing-panel decision stating that an individual had overdosed at Chi Phi on or about October 18 and that ketamine was being used by multiple people in the house. The public record therefore places a drug emergency and a CUPD drug arrest at the same university-owned fraternity house immediately before the night at the center of Jane Doe's lawsuit.

Newly reported CUPD records narrow one of the biggest unanswered questions in this case. ABC News reported that, before the Tompkins County District Attorney's Office closed the matter in 2024, a CUPD investigator told a DA investigator that campus police had conducted additional interviews after interviewing Jane Doe. According to the CUPD note documenting the November 25 call, prosecutors had already read the six-page statement and decided criminal charges would not be pursued. The office did not request the additional material.

The disclosure adds another layer to the evidence-transfer breakdown already documented on this page: Jane Doe gave CUPD a far longer interview in which she explicitly said she had been raped, while the DA relied on a condensed statement and did not conduct its own investigation. The newly reported note shows prosecutors were also told that additional CUPD investigative work existed and still did not ask to review it.

On October 4, Jane Doe's attorney Thomas Giuffra told CNN that he had already received an initial call from Attorney General Letitia James's office. He said the office told him it was bringing in people with experience investigating and prosecuting crimes of this kind. CNN also reported that Jane Doe recorded calls with several of the men in the weeks after the alleged assault. Giuffra said his side still has some of those recordings and referred to apologies in emails and other communications after the night at Chi Phi.

Cornell's previously anonymous disciplinary breakdown can now be matched to individual names. Reporting based on the University's discipline summaries identifies Matthew Ingalls and Jonathan Newell as the two men who were expelled. The records report that Cornell's panel found Ingalls and Newell responsible for sexual assault.

Winston Lee received a two-year suspension followed by several semesters of disciplinary probation. Gillio Lopes received a three-semester suspension and two years of probation. Both were issued no-contact orders involving Jane Doe and were required to complete sexual-harassment education and reflection papers.

Diego Sarabia had graduated before the disciplinary panel's ruling and received a three-year persona-non-grata order barring him from campus. Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar received no-contact orders and were required to complete education addressing sexual harassment, social-media use and bystander intervention and to write reflection papers. Kretzschmar's separate court challenge to Cornell's finding of attempted sexual exploitation is documented in Record 39.

In an eight-minute video released Saturday and reported on October 4, Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff publicly acknowledged the scale of the failure now confronting the University. He called the case a defining moment and said, “I believe we as an administration and we as a community must do better.”

Kotlikoff said Cornell must build systems in which survivors feel safe coming forward, investigations are rigorous and trauma-informed, and people who report sexual violence receive meaningful support. He said the outside review should inform additional changes but should not delay improvements Cornell can make now.

He also said the University will examine the role of Greek life on campus and seek input from students, alumni and other members of the Cornell community. Kotlikoff said the Board of Trustees would identify the outside law firm conducting the independent review the following week and voiced support for changes to New York sexual-assault law.

The attempts to expose Jane Doe's identity have now produced a documented safety problem. Her attorney Thomas Giuffra said Jane Doe has received multiple threats intended to pressure or intimidate her over the lawsuit, including messages telling her to drop the case.

Giuffra told CNN that people attempting to identify his client had already targeted at least three women who were not Jane Doe. He said some of those uninvolved women received threats as well. Giuffra also said he personally received a threat on the morning of his October 4 CNN interview.

On October 5, Giuffra told PEOPLE the situation had moved beyond online harassment: police presence had been increased around where Jane Doe lives. He said she feels unsafe and described the ongoing threats as another layer of trauma after she left Cornell, which he called her “dream school.”

Reuters separately reported the threats as the case continued to draw national attention and online attempts to expose the survivor's identity. Jane Doe chose to proceed under a pseudonym so she could seek accountability without surrendering her identity to the internet. The campaign to unmask her has instead put both her and uninvolved women at risk.

Women across social media — joined by some men — began posting “I am Jane Doe” in solidarity with the Cornell survivor. Participants shared their own experiences with sexual violence while rejecting efforts to shame, discredit or expose the woman whose lawsuit forced renewed scrutiny of the Chi Phi case.

The Associated Press reported that some participants were deliberately using the phrase as a form of digital protection: flooding social platforms and search results so attempts to identify the real Jane Doe would become harder and less reliable. Reuters likewise documented the movement as a direct response to efforts to reveal her identity.

Attorney Andrew Miltenberg, who represents one of the men named in Jane Doe's civil lawsuit, asked Attorney General Letitia James to personally step aside from the criminal investigation. Miltenberg argued that James's public message of support for Jane Doe before she was appointed special prosecutor created an appearance-of-impartiality issue.

The request does not seek to return the case to the local DA or end the Attorney General's investigation. Miltenberg said other senior prosecutors in James's office could continue the case if James personally recused. James has said the investigation will be guided by the facts and the law.

Jane Doe's attorney offered a sharply different view of the new investigation. Giuffra told CNN that James's office said it was reaching outside its normal personnel to bring in people experienced in criminal investigations and prosecutions, and he said he expects the work to be fair and impartial.

Alumni pressure moved from public criticism to money on Sunday night. In an open letter delivered to President Michael Kotlikoff and members of Cornell's Board of Trustees, alumnus Marco Fuentes '85 said he was directing counsel to remove a planned bequest of 50% of his estate to Cornell.

Fuentes wrote that Cornell's handling of the Chi Phi case had destroyed his confidence in University leadership. He also said he was contacting alumni and donor networks to advocate a freeze on financial contributions until leadership changes occur.

The letter is one alumnus's advocacy, not a University action. Its significance is that the accountability campaign surrounding Jane Doe's case is now producing an explicit financial response from at least one donor who says he had planned to leave Cornell a major portion of his estate.

ABC News published a major new set of records on October 5, including portions of phone calls Jane Doe recorded while trying to reconstruct what happened at Chi Phi, text and Snapchat communications among fraternity members, and material from Cornell's internal investigation. ABC reported that one of Jane Doe's friends later told campus investigators that some fraternity members contacted her “almost every day” after the night in question in an effort the student described as “damage control” designed to keep her happy and “not upset about the situation.”

In a November 7, 2024 recorded call — one day before Jane Doe went to Cornell University Police — she told Matthew Ingalls that she was trying to piece together the night because she needed answers in order to heal. She asked how so many people entered the room. Ingalls said the door was unlocked, the party was crowded and there was nowhere else to go. ABC noted that he did not tell her during that call about his own Snapchat messages inviting fraternity members upstairs, including the message that they could “walk in and whip it out.”

The records also show an immediate internal response after Jane Doe reported the case on November 8. ABC published a small-group exchange in which Ingalls asked whether he should call Jane Doe. The fraternity's then-president told him to wait while the executive board figured out what it was doing. Other messages show members attempting to identify which party and date prompted Cornell's suspension notice.

Cornell investigators later examined another exchange in which Ingalls appeared to urge one of Jane Doe's friends to submit supposed “new evidence” that he said could get him and another respondent dismissed. The friend answered that she did not have evidence and later told investigators that Ingalls had repeatedly tried to persuade her that Jane Doe was lying. Those communications are evidence of what was said and how some fraternity members reacted; they do not by themselves establish a separate criminal offense.

An anonymous Cornell student who spoke with campus police during the original 2024 investigation has now described what she gave investigators and why she came forward. She told NBC News that she began hearing a disturbing rumor about the Chi Phi night within roughly 24 to 48 hours and later saw screenshots from the fraternity's Snapchat group.

After Cornell issued its November 8 crime alert, the student and a friend submitted a tip. Police later called her in for an interview that she said lasted about 30 minutes. She described giving investigators the information she had, including messages, possible witnesses, secondhand information about drugs and her familiarity with the Chi Phi house. NBC reported that documents it reviewed corroborated details of her account.

Jane Doe's attorney Thomas Giuffra expanded on his concerns about missing digital evidence in an October 5 interview with PEOPLE. He said the surviving Snapchat screenshot became available because a fraternity member who was not present that night opened the group messages the next morning.

Giuffra alleged that once fraternity members realized the seriousness of what had happened, they began deleting messages and “dumping things.” He said he fears much of the digital evidence that could have shown the full scope of the night's communications is now gone. That is Giuffra's allegation; the public record has not established exactly what was deleted, by whom, or whether recoverable copies still exist.

Giuffra also said he had been in contact with Attorney General Letitia James's office and that the special prosecutor was bringing in people experienced in criminal investigation and prosecution to examine the case.

Documents reviewed by CNN show that Cornell University Police drafted letters to Verizon and T-Mobile on November 15, 2024, about one week after Jane Doe reported that she had been raped at Chi Phi. The drafts said investigators believed the listed phone accounts could contain evidence relevant to an ongoing sexual-assault investigation.

The letters directed the carriers to preserve available account data — including emails, text messages, phone calls, photographs and video messages — while police sought a signed warrant. The drafts said a warrant would follow within 30 days.

Jane Doe's attorney has said her recorded phone calls with fraternity members did not reach the original prosecutor. The newly reported carrier letters therefore add another category of potential evidence to the unresolved question of what CUPD sought, what it obtained and what ultimately reached prosecutors in 2024.

The “Justice for Survivors” demonstration that had been planned for October 5 became a major campus event. Reuters described a march of several hundred students, faculty supporters and community activists — perhaps 1,000 or more — while Associated Press reporting described Ho Plaza overflowing, with additional people watching from nearby paths, windows and a hill.

Demonstrators called for changes that went far beyond the discipline imposed in Jane Doe's individual case: an external inquiry into Cornell's handling, independent hearings, uniform minimum sanctions for sexual assault, stronger campus-police training, changes to the University's consent rules and greater transparency. Some protesters also called for President Michael Kotlikoff and other administrators to resign and for Cornell to reconsider or abolish Greek life.

Students marched toward Day Hall after the rally. Spectrum News reported that organizers planned another action for Wednesday, October 7: a seven-hour sit-in and economic blackout in which participants would avoid purchases for seven hours, symbolizing the period Jane Doe says she endured the alleged assault.

At approximately 3 a.m. on October 5, anonymous activists damaged the entrance to Day Hall, Cornell's main administration building, before the larger daytime survivor rally. The Cornell Daily Sun reported that panes in a glass door were smashed and red paint was used to write “SMASH THE PATRIARCHY” and “AT CORNELL RAPISTS ARE PROTECTED PROTESTORS ARE EXPELLED” on the surrounding walls. A security camera was also covered.

The activists provided the Sun with a statement saying the action was undertaken in response to Cornell's handling of Jane Doe's case and arguing that University leadership should not be able to continue “business as usual.” Their statement named administrators they believed had failed Jane Doe and called for resignations.

Cornell Vice President for University Relations Kyle Kimball said the University was investigating. He acknowledged the community's frustration and strong emotions but said damaging property was not the answer. The property damage was separate from the large organized Ho Plaza rally later that day.

The Change.org petition titled “CORNELL ALUMNI SUPPORTING JANE DOE” passed 50,000 verified signatures as pressure on Cornell continued to expand beyond campus. The petition says alumni will withhold support and charitable contributions unless Cornell delivers greater administrative accountability, investigation transparency and binding reforms for sexual-assault cases.

Its demands include removal of officials found to be complicit through a transparent investigation, release of more information about the University's investigations and disciplinary process, a public apology and audit, and new policies intended to prevent and address sexual assault.

As defense arguments and public debate continue to focus on differences between Jane Doe's earliest messages, her six-page sworn statement and later accounts, The Washington Post published a science-focused report examining how trauma can affect memory and disclosure after sexual assault.

Experts interviewed for the report explained that extreme stress can interfere with how events are encoded and recalled, leaving memories fragmented or difficult to place in sequence. They also noted that survivors may not immediately understand, label or disclose an experience in the same terms they use later. Inconsistency by itself, the experts explained, does not establish that an assault did not occur.

The reporting is relevant to a central dispute in this case because the public record shows Jane Doe's understanding of the night changing over the following weeks while she sought medical care, preserved evidence, asked the men involved what happened, requested a rape kit and eventually told CUPD she could say with “100% confidence” that she had been raped.

Cornell's Board of Trustees has retained former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and the law firm King & Spalding to conduct the independent review Cornell had promised amid mounting scrutiny of its handling of Jane Doe's case and sexual violence on campus.

The announced scope is broad. It includes reports and investigations of sexual violence, survivor support, hearings and appeals, Cornell University Police, coordination with prosecutors, campus-safety reporting, Greek-life oversight and the role of the Board itself. It also calls for a detailed examination of whether Cornell followed its own policies in Jane Doe's case.

Cornell says Yates will have full independence to conduct the review. That makes this more than the earlier promise to hire outside counsel: the reviewer has now been identified and the review's mandate reaches both Jane Doe's case and the University's broader systems for responding to sexual violence.

ABC News obtained video from Cornell University Police interviews in which Chi Phi members described hearing that the sexual activity involving Jane Doe had been consensual. The interviews become more significant when investigators press the witnesses on the basis for that belief rather than simply accepting the repeated claim.

In one exchange highlighted by ABC, a witness could not recall exactly what had been said and instead referred back to what the men involved had reportedly told other fraternity members. The investigator pushed on the problem of fraternity brothers repeating one another's account without being able to identify independent knowledge of what occurred inside the room.

ABC also obtained portions of Jane Doe's later testimony in Cornell's process. She described feeling as if she had been held up “like bait”, remembered men moving in and out of a dark room, and said she felt as though there was a joke happening around her that she did not understand. She ended by asking Cornell to make the community safer and remove the men she accused from campus.

Cornell's Faculty Senate now has a formal no-confidence resolution pending over the University's response to the ongoing sexual-assault crisis. The proposed resolution states that the Senate has no confidence in the central administration's ability to effectively address that crisis.

The official Cornell faculty-governance page lists 11 faculty senators as co-sponsors and a substantially larger list of supporting faculty. The resolution's rationale says faculty have been approached by students who are upset and fearful for their safety and by alumni who have shared traumatic experiences of their own.

Cornell's posted schedule calls for debate on October 14 and October 28, followed by electronic voting. That creates a public governance process that can be followed through debate, amendment and the final vote rather than treating the proposal as though it has already passed.

CNN reported that Cornell officials confirmed during a faculty webinar that two of the men named in Jane Doe's civil lawsuit remain enrolled at Cornell and are attending classes.

The disclosure connects the previously reported disciplinary outcomes to an immediate campus question: faculty members raised concerns about what instructors are expected to do when students accused in the civil suit are present in their classrooms while the case continues to receive national scrutiny.

The webinar took place amid a broader campus response that now includes town halls, protests, faculty governance action and the October 7 Zero Day sit-in and economic blackout.

RAINN reported that contacts to the National Sexual Assault Hotline rose 73% over the previous week as national attention focused on Jane Doe's allegations and Cornell's response. RAINN said Monday's contact volume was more than double normal levels.

According to the organization, many people contacting the hotline specifically mentioned coverage of Jane Doe's case as a reason they reached out. RAINN president Scott Berkowitz publicly thanked Jane Doe for coming forward and said the organization stands with her.

That gives the public response a measurable survivor-services dimension. The effect is not limited to social-media engagement, petitions or campus demonstrations; RAINN is reporting a substantial increase in people directly seeking assistance.

A Washington Post analysis published October 7 places Cornell's current accountability debate inside a much larger set of institutional data. The report identified more than 1,200 reported incidents at Cornell from 2018 through 2024, while the most serious disciplinary outcomes during that period included seven expulsions or dismissals and 14 suspensions.

The Post found that Cornell reports were more likely than statewide reports to reach law enforcement, but less likely to become formal university cases or end in the most serious forms of discipline. Statewide, more than 25,800 reports were recorded; just over 1% ended in expulsion or dismissal and about 2% ended in suspension.

The analysis also discusses why survivors often disengage from institutional systems, including trauma, fear of retaliation, fear of disbelief and withdrawal from proceedings. It reiterates Cornell's 2025 survey finding that 35% of undergraduate women respondents reported nonconsensual sexual contact since enrolling.

RAINN has launched a Cornell-specific #NoMoreExcuses campaign connecting Jane Doe's case to the debate over New York sexual-assault law and the treatment of voluntary intoxication in consent cases.

RAINN is calling for New York lawmakers to produce a formal recommendation supporting legislation that addresses voluntary intoxication in the 2027 legislative session. The campaign gives survivor advocates a national organization and a specific policy demand tied to the legal debate that Jane Doe's case has intensified.

The New York State Assembly has separately confirmed the formation of a working group to examine the state's sexual-assault statutes and develop legislative recommendations before the end of the year. That working group changes the political context around the pending debate even while existing bills remain in the legislative process.

Associated Press reporting adds a new dispute to the 2024 investigation timeline: Jane Doe's attorney, Thomas Giuffra, says Jane Doe was left with the impression that Cornell University Police were continuing to investigate while Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten had already decided not to pursue criminal charges.

The AP reports that Van Houten reached his decision within days of Jane Doe's substantive police interviews. Giuffra said he also believed investigators were still working the case and criticized the shorter police summary used in the original prosecutorial review.

Gillio Lopes has moved beyond asking Attorney General Letitia James to recuse herself. Bloomberg Law and ABC News report that Lopes filed an Article 78 petition in Albany Supreme Court seeking to overturn Gov. Kathy Hochul's appointment of James as special prosecutor in the reopened criminal investigation.

Lopes argues that James's prior public comments created actual or perceived bias and asks the court to require appointment of another prosecutor. No ruling on that request had been reported as of the 11:18 p.m. Pacific update on October 8.

Jared Hoffman '15, who says he lived at Chi Phi and pledged the chapter in 2012, published a first-person account describing months of physical, emotional and psychological hazing during his new-member period.

Hoffman says that during the final hours of initiation he was sleep deprived, physically exhausted and blindfolded when other people put a spicy substance on his genitals. He describes that incident as a sexual assault. He also writes that the broader pledge process was designed to break new members and calls for the Chi Phi house and fraternity system to be fundamentally transformed.

ABC News reviewed transcripts from Cornell's 12-day disciplinary hearing and reported additional portions of Jane Doe's May 29, 2025 testimony. Speaking by teleconference, Jane Doe told the panel that Cornell had become a place where she had been "raped and tormented" and asked the university to make the campus safer.

She described feeling as though she had been used as bait while men entered the room, discussed her fragmented memories and intoxication, and explained why some of her earliest communications after the night could sound friendly even as her understanding of what happened changed.

Moonies Bar & Nightclub, a defendant in Jane Doe's civil lawsuit, has publicly denied that its staff unlawfully served Jane Doe alcohol while she was underage or visibly intoxicated during the October 19, 2024 Tri Delta event.

According to PEOPLE, the bar says the private event used wristbands to distinguish guests who could legally be served alcohol and that underage attendees were marked and not served. Moonies is seeking dismissal of the claims against it and also says Jane Doe briefly worked at the establishment in early 2025.

Tri Delta national leadership issued a public statement addressing the Cornell case. The organization called the acts of sexual violence described in public reporting abhorrent and inexcusable while stating that it could not discuss case-specific details because Tri Delta is a defendant in the litigation.

The statement says the organization is working to understand the facts and expresses support for women and others who experience sexual violence.

By October 8, the response to Jane Doe's case had expanded beyond Cornell into coordinated demonstrations around the country. Reuters reported hundreds of protesters outside the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan as part of a broader national movement under the banner "#StopSexualViolence: From the Frat House to the White House."

More than 200 people gathered on Boston Common. In Chicago, several hundred Lincoln Park High School students walked out of class and marched in solidarity with Jane Doe and sexual-assault survivors. Additional campus and community actions were reported elsewhere.

TMZ reports that paperwork for the registered October 2024 Chi Phi party listed Jonathan Newell as a trained event monitor. Under the event-safety role described in the reporting, a trained monitor was expected to remain sober and be identifiable to police, paramedics or other attendees if an emergency occurred.

The same reporting compares that assignment with Newell's later text messages to Jane Doe, in which he described himself as highly intoxicated and said that, had he been less impaired and more aware of how the situation was escalating, he would have stopped men from entering the room.