Yiming Chen/AP
After a week of intensifying public pressure and reporting from Cornell’s independent daily newspaper, prosecutors in New York have reopened a criminal investigation into the alleged 2024 gang rape of a former student at the campus’s Chi Phi fraternity house.
The student, identified as Jane Doe, filed a civil complaint earlier this month accusing Cornell of failing to protect her and choosing instead to level minimal punishment against the seven fraternity members who allegedly “plied [her] with alcohol and drugs to the point of intoxication” before raping her. Those actions, the complaint alleged, included temporary suspensions and opportunities for some of the fraternity members to mitigate those suspensions by submitting essays.
“We want to reexamine whether there’s additional evidence that we were not aware of in November of 2024,” Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten told ABC News, “that exists now that would change our assessment of the case and would result in the grand jury finding that there was criminal conduct.”
The complaint also included an image from a Snapchat text thread wherein one of the men appeared to encourage others to take advantage of the “free pussy” upstairs, referring to Doe. An attorney for one of the defendants denied the allegations. Speaking through the same attorney, the defendant claimed that he had nothing more than “thoughtlessly” engage in a text thread.
“Cornell has failed her. Cornell has failed us.”
Cornell on Monday said that it welcomed the new investigation but vehemently defended the school’s handling of the case.
“Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false,” a university relations official wrote in a statement. “A continuation of the false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case is irresponsible, will make survivors feel less safe and supported, and will perpetuate the underreporting of sexual assault.”
In a searing op-ed published last week, editors of the Cornell Daily Sun took the university to task for failing to protect its students, while condemning administrators for creating an academic environment where “enough ambiguity, enough he-said-she-said, enough familial connections, enough money will allow you to get off scot-free.”
“We refuse for this victim to be reduced to just another story,” the op-ed read, adding that “Cornell has failed [Doe]. Cornell has failed us.”
“We removed this label upon further review after we determined that it qualified for a newsworthy allowance,” a Meta spokesperson confirmed. “The post is now fully visible for adults.”
Details from the civil complaint have since ricocheted across social media and ignited intense public outrage.
“After reading about the young woman who was gang raped at her college by her friend and school peers, I’m feeling uneasy and sick and anxious,” the actor Florence Pugh wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday. “I’m processing quietly and watching everything and everyone and every man.”
Soon after, Pugh accused Meta of suppressing her post.
“A label was initially applied to the post, warning people that the content may be sensitive before they click through,” Meta confirmed to Mother Jones. “We removed this label upon further review after we determined that it qualified for a newsworthy allowance. The post is now fully visible for adults.”
On the same day that the Tompkins County district attorney announced it was revisiting the investigation, the Trump administration finalized its plan to repeal Title IX, the Biden-era rule that mandated a formal process for schools to respond to sexual misconduct claims.
