A former student has claimed she was drugged and gang-raped inside a fraternity house at a top US university.
Cornell University is at the center of rape allegations after a former female student’s claims emerged.
The student, who was 20 years old at the time, is said to have been drugged, attacked and raped by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity in 2024, according to a civil lawsuit.
The alleged assault happened in October inside the fraternity house in Ithaca, New York, after the woman is said to have been pressured into snorting a drug believed to have been ketamine.
Before her alleged hours-long assault, one male student is said to have sent a message to the fraternity Snapchat group saying there was ‘free p****’ and invited others to join, documents seen by The Independent detail.
Several men are said to have arrived before the woman was allegedly subjected to violent abuse and sexual assault across various rooms before she lost consciousness.
The civil complaint sparked outrage, and now officials are reconsidering the case and whether to bring criminal charges, ABC News reports.
The county district attorney Matthew Van Houten said his office will look into the case again, although the woman’s allegations in the civil complaint are ‘dramatically different’ to her statement to the campus police two years ago.
No criminal charges were brought against the seven men in 2024 because the student’s initial police statement did not claim she was drugged and that the sexual activities were not consensual, Van Houten said.
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Chi Phi chapter remains banned from Cornell’s campus following the alleged incident.
The woman, named in documents under the pseudonym Jane Doe, had dreamt about graduating from Cornell since she was a child, but this was ‘destroyed by a group of men who sought to abuse and humiliate her,’ her attorney Thomas Giuffra claimed.
He said the messages in the fraternity group chat showed the ‘arrogrance and cruelty of these men.’
The attorney accused the authorities of not contacting her client and relying on the investigation carried out by Cornell campus police.
Van Houten said this was in line with standard practice across New York counties.
Giuffra insisted that the Snapchat messages were provided to authorities already in 2024, while the district attorney said the messages were never provided to his office.
Cornell said in a statement last week: ‘Cornell University is aware of a lawsuit concerning the deeply disturbing allegations of sexual assault involving members of the student community that occurred in 2024.
‘The Cornell Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards investigated and adjudicated the allegations consistent with university policies.
‘The Xi chapter of Chi Phi fraternity remains barred from our campus.
‘Federal privacy law prohibits Cornell from disclosing specific information regarding individual students and we therefore are unable to make a public statement on any other disciplinary response. Violations of university policies could lead to sanctions up to and including suspension or expulsion. We will respond in detail through the legal process.’
The university added it takes ‘sexual violence extremely seriously’ and that it launched a task force on campus sexual assault shortly after the incident.
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