A young woman says she was gang-raped for hours at a Cornell University fraternity in 2024 after being pressured to take ketamine, that a fraternity member sent a group chat encouraging others to join in, and that when it was all over, some of the men involved were asked to write essays. No one was criminally charged. The case is now, two years later, being reopened.
What Actually Happened Here
According to a civil lawsuit filed this month, the woman, identified as Jane Doe, was sexually assaulted by members of Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity chapter in 2024. The lawsuit alleges that at least one member sent a message in a group chat encouraging other members to participate in the attack. NBC News is reporting that the suit names seven Chi Phi fraternity members.
The Chi Phi chapter was barred from campus after the allegations surfaced. But no criminal charges were ever brought. The Tompkins County DA's office apparently looked at the case and moved on. The university ran its own Title IX process, which, according to Cornell, resulted in sanctions including expulsions and suspensions. And, per the lawsuit, some of the students involved were allowed to 'mitigate their conduct' by writing essays.
Essays. After a gang rape allegation. Some guys had to write essays and call it a day.
The Investigation That Wasn't
Jane Doe's attorney, Thomas P. Giuffra, told NBC News that his client went to the Cornell University Police Department in the immediate aftermath of the alleged assault. She got as far as filing an initial report. That was it.
According to Giuffra, university officers never followed up on the group chat, never identified who was on it, never interviewed witnesses in any serious way. 'That available evidence was there. They could have utilized it,' he told NBC News. 'What they should have done is investigated who was on that group chat and interviewed witnesses and developed evidence. That's what investigators do, and that was not done at all.'
Cornell police, when contacted by NBC News, referred reporters back to the university's previous statements. That's the institutional version of hanging up the phone. Cornell's vice president for university relations, Kyle Kimball, released a statement insisting that 'any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false.' What he did not do was explain why the group chat sat untouched.
Two Years Later, a DA Pays Attention
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten told NBC News that the civil lawsuit filing is what finally prompted him to reopen the criminal case. Not new physical evidence. Not a tip. The fact that a lawsuit was filed and Jane Doe is now publicly saying there's more evidence out there.
'Now that this lawsuit has been filed, that raises the question that Jane Doe believes there's additional evidence,' Van Houten said. 'We want to talk to her. We want to flesh out with her what that additional evidence is.' He added that it is 'never too late to reopen and pursue justice when there is additional evidence,' which is a fine sentiment that would land better if the DA's office hadn't apparently needed a civil lawsuit to remember the case existed.
The Ithaca Police Department is also listed in the civil lawsuit as actively investigating the allegations. Ithaca PD did not respond to NBC News' request for comment.
Where Jane Doe Is Now
Giuffra told NBC News that in the days immediately following the alleged assault, his client was 'traumatized, numb and unable to function.' She had faith, he said, that Cornell would handle it. She didn't want to sue. She wanted the school to make it right. 'She wanted to give Cornell the opportunity to make this right, because this was her expectation,' Giuffra said.
In a written statement released Monday, Jane Doe said she hopes 'to recover from this trauma but it is extremely difficult. It affects every aspect of my life. It will haunt me and be part of me the rest of my life.' She is no longer enrolled at Cornell. She is no longer pursuing the goals that took her there. As Giuffra put it to NBC News, 'she's just trying to hang on.'
One of the seven named defendants, Scott Kretzschmar, has an attorney who told NBC News that Kretzschmar 'responded to and made an immature comment on Snapchat' but 'did nothing else. Nothing.' His attorney called the lawsuit 'intentionally dishonest but morally repugnant.' Kretzschmar's team says he welcomes the new investigation. We'll see how that goes.
What Cornell Is Saying
Cornell's position, relayed through Kimball's statement to NBC News, is essentially: we took this seriously, we punished people, stop implying otherwise. The university says its Title IX process produced a range of sanctions, up to and including expulsions and suspensions. The university also says it supports the DA's decision to send the case to a criminal grand jury, which is an interesting thing to support two years after doing nothing to push for criminal charges yourself.
The specific claim that some students could 'mitigate their conduct' by writing essays comes from the civil lawsuit itself, not from Cornell. The university has not directly addressed that allegation in its public statements. That silence is doing a lot of heavy lifting right now.
The Dingo Take
A fraternity member allegedly sent a group message encouraging brothers to participate in a sexual assault. That message existed. The phone records existed. The group chat existed. Cornell police took a report and apparently decided that was enough work for one day. Some of the accused later wrote essays. That's the part that should follow every person in that chain of command for the rest of their professional lives.
What's also maddening is the timeline. This happened in 2024. The DA is reopening the case in late 2026 because a civil lawsuit got filed. Not because law enforcement dug deeper. Not because the university referred evidence upstream. Because a young woman who is no longer in school, who is 'just trying to hang on,' finally went to civil court out of what sounds like sheer desperation. That's not the system working. That's one person refusing to let the system bury her.
Cornell wants credit for expulsions and suspensions. Maybe some of those sanctions were serious. But if your Title IX process ends with guys writing essays about a gang rape allegation and no one ever looking hard at the group chat, you don't get to stand at a podium and talk about consequences. You get to answer questions in front of a grand jury. Finally, after two years, that might actually happen.
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