New York state prosecutors have reopened an investigation into an alleged 2024 gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity house after a complaint was filed by a former student who claims she was drugged and raped by a group of men on campus.
The new complaint
The woman’s complaint, over 100 pages long, describes in great detail what happened inside the Chi Phi fraternity on the night of October 19, 2024, as well as how the university and the local prosecutor’s office in Ithaca, New York, handled the case. The former student accused seven members of the fraternity of participating in the attack while she was unable to give consent or react.
The case reopened
The Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office said Monday that it reopened the case for a grand jury review after being “urged by the community to reconsider whether to criminally prosecute the seven fraternity members.”
According to Matthew Van Houten, the county’s district attorney, no criminal charges were initially filed because the woman in 2024 did not provide the same allegations outlined in the new lawsuit. The victim’s lawyer has a different opinion: “The information was promptly provided to the Cornell authorities. The report did not differ substantially from what was contained in the 2026 complaint.”
The reconstruction
The former student’s statements name more than a dozen defendants, including the seven members of the 2024 fraternity, as well as Cornell University and the Chi Phi fraternity. The allegations include negligence, breach of contract, sexual assault and bodily injury, as well as violations of New York State Human Rights Law.
According to the story of the student, then twenty years old, on the evening of October 19, 2024 she had been drinking at home and in a bar before going to the Chi Phi headquarters to visit a friend. In the complaint, the woman says the friend and another fraternity member offered her more alcohol and forced her to snort a substance they described as ketamine, and that she was later sexually assaulted while she was “incapable of giving consent.”
Chat on WhatsApp
At approximately 1:42 a.m., one of the men allegedly posted a message to the fraternity’s Snapchat group chat, titled “Chi Phi Actives,” and encouraged other members to participate in the gang violence, according to the indictment. A photo of part of the chat is included in the documentation. Several members of the fraternity then entered the room, where they allegedly pressured the girl to take more ketamine and subjected her to an hours-long assault that continued until approximately 5:45 in the morning. The lawyer for one of the accused fraternity members denied any wrongdoing on his client’s part, while the whereabouts of the other men involved were not disclosed.
The position of the prosecutor’s office
District Attorney Van Houten, interviewed by CNN’s Jake Tapper, explained why a thorough investigation would not be launched after the 2024 report: “Nothing in the original statement indicated that she had been drugged without her consent or had sexual intercourse against her will. We cannot change what happened in the past, no matter how outraged the community is. My job is to enforce the criminal law of the State of New York. We are bound by that law. Whether you agree with it or not, that find someone’s conduct morally repugnant, vulgar or disgusting, I am still bound by the law.” Speaking about the screenshots of the messages exchanged by the men, he called them “vulgar and disgusting”, but without reference to the woman’s consent.
“Inadequate first investigation”
Thomas P. Giuffra, the woman’s attorney, called the initial investigation into the case “inadequate”: “I struggle to understand how a thorough criminal investigation could be conducted when she never spoke to anyone other than the officer who took her initial report. Aside from her first contact with Cornell police, she was not contacted by investigators from the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office or other investigators who specialize in interviewing rape victims. to proceed with criminal prosecution, I believe it is a step in the right direction, albeit a belated one.”
The Cornell accusations
According to the lawyer, the university expelled only two of the seven accused students, while the others received minor sanctions, including suspensions, seminars or written assignments. Cornell rejected those claims, but would not provide further information on individual provisions, citing student privacy law.
The school also said it had shut down the local chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity and banned it from the campus. According to the former student, Cornell did not take appropriate action: “It protected those responsible from speaking to law enforcement and silenced the victims. The university’s conduct was outrageous, shocking, despicable and reprehensible.”
Yesterday, the university responded in a statement: “We support the Tompkins County District Attorney’s decision to give the victim the opportunity to tell his side of the story to an indicting jury. However, any suggestion that the university failed to impose significant sanctions on those responsible is false. Continuing to spread the false narrative that the consequences in this case were minimal is irresponsible, will make victims feel less safe and less supported, and will help perpetuate under-reporting of violence sexual”.