On September 16, 2026, an anonymous former student of Cornell University identified under the pseudonym Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit against the university, its Chi Phi fraternity chapter, and a group of seven student members of the fraternity among others. Doe alleged that she was drugged and gang raped by the seven students at the Chi Phi fraternity house in 2024, and that Cornell failed to protect her and punish the alleged perpetrators.
Doe reported the incident to Cornell University Police on November 8, 2024, which allegedly took place about three weeks prior, between October 19 and 20. After receiving a six-page summary of the 120-page police transcript, Tompkins County district attorney Matthew Van Houten declined to present the case to a grand jury. From January to May 2025, a TitleIX investigation and at least twelve hearings were conducted by Cornell, resulting in the expulsion of two students and closure of the Chi Phi chapter, while also permanently barring it from campus. The other accused students faced other sanctions, such as suspensions, disciplinary probation, and writing reflection papers.
Since the case was filed in 2026, the accusations alleged by Doe have attracted national media and political attention. Following media outcry, New York governor Kathy Hochul called for a transparent and independent review of Cornell's responses and appointed New York attorney general Letitia James as a special prosecutor. The student defendants are often colloquially referred to by the media as the "Cornell7".
Alleged gang rape
Doe's account At around 8:30p.m. on October 19, 2024, "Jane Doe", a 20-year-old student at Cornell University and member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority attended a sorority social event at Moonies Bar & Nightclub in Ithaca, New York. She had drunk vodka at her sorority house before traveling to the bar with the chapter's house mother. She alleged that the bar staff were aware that she was below the legal drinking age in the United States (21), drawing an "X" mark on both of her hands to indicate this, but that she was still provided with at least one drink at the establishment. She and her sorority co-members walked to another bar. According to Doe, by 11p.m., she had drunk approximately ten drinks in three hours and was "visibly drunk". She walked about from the bar to visit a male friend, a member of the school's Chi Phi chapter, at the fraternity house located at 107 Edgemoor Lane.
According to Doe, the male friend took her inside the fraternity house, gave her another beer, and proposed a threesome with a second man. She consumed marijuana, rum, and ketamine with the men before engaging in sexual activity. She reportedly developed bruising as a result of the sexual activity and said she was pressured to consume the ketamine. She noted that it was her first time consuming the drug. She later engaged in further sexual activity with one of these men and a third man that entered the room.
By the following day, at around 1:42a.m., some of the men exchanged Snapchat messages in a group chat called "Chi Phi Actives" saying that there was "free pussy" upstairs, in reference to Doe. At one point, a photo of Doe was sent to the chat, in which she appeared to be smiling with a man; immediately before this, Doe's male friend wrote, "Like you can walk in and whip it out. [...] Boys come whip it out". Another man also allegedly asked "Shop still open?" immediately after the image was sent, receiving an affirmative reply.
As four additional men entered the room, Doe was "horrified" and hid under the covers of the bed. According to her 2024 report, these men reportedly ingested ketamine and a majority of them left after making additional advances. At various points, she allegedly told some of them that she was "uncomfortable" and "tired". As the majority of the men left, two of the men removed her to another room. The 2024 report relays this as potentially the fraternity president's office, but later reports describe as a closet. At Cornell's TitleIX hearing in May 2025, Doe alleged that at this point these two men were "just raping" her as she was "in and out of consciousness". She described this as her "worst" experience of the night. She also told the police in her longer initial statement that at this point, her eyes were "looking in different directions" and she became "completely numb to the situation".
The 2026 lawsuit alleged that she was "incapable of consenting" to the initial encounter. Both the 2024 and 2026 accounts alleged rape during the later encounters. In this lawsuit, she added the allegation that some of the men pressured her to consume additional ketamine until she became "completely incapacitated". It also stated that she lost consciousness around 5:45a.m. on October20.
2024 police statement and summary Doe told police that she was "pretty OK" with the first encounter. According to the district attorney's summary of Doe's police statement, the first threesome ended when one of the men lost his erection and "stumbled" from the couch to the bed to take a nap and the second man began dry-heaving. Doe comforted him, but he assured her that he would not vomit. They briefly kissed again, with the man allegedly reaching for the area near her vagina "several" times. She allegedly swatted his hand away each time.
A third man, to whom the room belonged, entered. Doe and the third man kissed, eventually engaging in a second threesome with the second man as the first continued sleeping nearby. The first man eventually woke up and proposed a foursome, to which Doe said "Hell no", and it didn't proceed. At one point, the third man left the room. Four other men then entered the room. The first man was described as sitting on the corner of the bed and allegedly introduced the other men to Doe. The additional men allegedly consumed ketamine off her body and made additional advances. Most of the men allegedly left the room following this encounter, but two of the men reportedly then took Doe to another room for another threesome. At this point, Doe reported she was "completely incapacitated". According to this statement, the third threesome ended when Doe said she was "tired".
In the district attorney's summary, she recalled replying "Sure" to a request to consume drugs off her body; and she alleged that at this point she was feeling "dizzy" due to an unspecified pre-existing medical condition paired with the effects of ketamine usage. The third man and another man entered the room during this and said something like, "Ok we're shutting down whatever the [expletive] this is." The group dispersed. The first man allegedly proposed another threesome to "redeem" himself after the first; Doe allegedly told him she was tired and asked, "What happened to just you and me?" Another threesome occurred; at this point, she was allegedly an "8 out of 10" in terms of intoxication according to the summary. The sexual act reportedly concluded at 5:45a.m. when Doe said that she was tired.
Men's accounts According to investigative records obtained by The New York Times, four of the accused men acknowledged sexual contact with Doe but alleged that it was consensual; the others denied participating in sexual encounters. One alleged that Doe had performed oral sex on him when he was too incapacitated to consent. The Times reported that their accounts differed and frequently contradicted one another.
Most of the men alleged that Doe did not appear intoxicated. One participant in the initial threesome said he assumed her friend had obtained her consent, and that he and her friend had drunk heavily, used marijuana and ketamine, and vomited. Another alleged that Doe initiated sexual contact without asking for his consent. One of the men recalled allegedly telling Jane Doe that "if you're uncomfortable with any of this or you won't want to do this, that's perfectly fine. We can call it a night", to which she allegedly replied, "We're all consenting adults here", though this statement was reportedly given prior to additional ketamine usage and a few hours before the end of the alleged assault.
Two others said they entered after reading the Snapchat message; one claimed that they were checking on Doe's welfare. Another man denied using drugs or engaging in sexual contact and said that he only stayed in the room Doe was in for five minutes. Another man said he was initially concerned on entering after 2:30a.m., but was reassured when those present invited him in.
Aftermath In documents from Cornell's Title IX investigation, one of Doe's roommates testified that in the morning after the incident, she was seemingly in shock and trying to laugh off what had transpired. According to another roommate, Doe told her, "I wasn't comfortable." On October 21, one of the accused men texted her to apologize for "how things went down" and said his memory was "kinda fuzzy". Doe replied that "non of the sexual stuff was illegal" and that she had liked being with him and the other man in the initial encounter. She also said that her memory was "super clouded too", assured him that they were amicable, and suggested that they could smoke substances together again, though she requested to "leave out the extra 5 billion men and ketamine".
On October 22, Doe told a university doctor that she had contracted a urinary tract infection "in a traumatic way" and sought testing for sexually transmitted diseases; allegedly, she was advised to "speak with somebody" and was not offered expert consultation or a rape kit.
The Title IX record contains an interview with one of the accused men where he allegedly confirmed that he spoke to Doe, convincing her not to "spread any rumors" about the incident. He is also quoted as saying that he and his fraternity co-members were "in the idea of just deny" if asked about the events of that night. Doe maintained friendly correspondence with her male friend until a week following the incident, when she read a comment in an online forum about the fraternity, referring to people who had "gang raped a sophomore".
Her male friend had assured her that she was welcome at the fraternity's annual Halloween party, which she had been eager to attend. However, before Halloween, the fraternity's president phoned Doe to inform her that she was disinvited from the party. On November 3, she texted two of the accused men and alleged that "90% of what happened that night was not consensual". On November 7, Doe went to an emergency room in Ithaca and requested a rape kit. On November 8, 2024, Doe reported these alleged assaults to Cornell University Police with the encouragement of her friends.
Cornell's Chi Phi chapter was notified of their suspension on the same day that Doe reported her allegations to the police. Text messages sent to a small group chat, as verified by ABC News, showed Doe's male friend asking his co-members: "What's the plan of action? Should I call [Jane Doe]? I don't think she would have reported this." Within the chat, the fraternity members attempted to figure out what party was being referenced in their suspension notice; the one on October 19 with Doe and another on the 25th were mentioned as possibilities. On November 10, Doe made a phone call to her male friend, which she recorded. In it, she told him that she had sustained physical injuries from the alleged assaults and wanted to understand how the events of the night happened. He claimed that she had said she was sober on the night of the incident, while she insisted that she had not. She also asked him why so many men entered the bedroom in which the sexual activity took place. "The door was just unlocked…the party was sort of like crowded…there was nowhere else to go", he replied, not mentioning that he had sent messages inviting his Chi Phi co-members to enter.