Cornell Frat House Rape Probe Reopened Amidst Outcry and New Lawsuit

New York state prosecutors have reopened a chilling investigation into the alleged rape of a woman at Cornell University in 2024, an incident that has resurfaced through a recent civil lawsuit. The woman, identified as Jane Doe in court filings, filed a 101-page civil lawsuit against the Ivy League university on September 16, alleging she was drugged and raped at a Chi Phi fraternity house.

She also claims Cornell failed to protect her or adequately punish the men involved, dubbed the "Cornell Seven."

The lawsuit details a horrifying night on October 19, 2024, when the then 20-year-old Cornell undergraduate alleges she was assaulted for hours by seven men from the university's Chi Phi chapter.

The suit claims alcohol and the drug ketamine were involved, rendering her incapable of consent.

Jane Doe recounted leaving her sorority sisters that night, intoxicated, and stumbling alone to the Chi Phi house in Ithaca to meet a male friend.

Cornell University has stated its support for presenting the case to a grand jury and has agreed to an independent investigator examining the allegations. However, the university rejects claims that it failed to punish those involved initially.

The lawsuit itself covers a range of charges including sexual assault and battery, negligence, breach of contract, and violations of New York's Human Rights Law, targeting the university, the fraternity, and the men allegedly responsible.

Evidence presented in the case includes an image from a Chi Phi Actives group chat, where participants allegedly discussed a "free" sexual encounter with Doe in vulgar terms, just before 02:00 local time on October 20, 2024. Additionally, text messages reportedly exchanged two days after the alleged assault show one of the defendants apologizing for "how things went down" and admitting his memory was "kinda fuzzy," implying he and another man felt bad for being too intoxicated to "shut it down and kick people out before it got way out of hand." The woman in the text chain reportedly replied that her memory was "super clouded too" and that they were all intoxicated.

Outrage has mounted in recent weeks, particularly after Doe alleged in her lawsuit that the men were "afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays." Her lawyer has confirmed that two of those involved were expelled, but emphasized the profound impact on Jane Doe, who reportedly dropped out of the university after the alleged assault, feeling "traumatised, numb and unable to function or accept the horror of what had happened." The Cornell newspaper's editorial board fueled public outcry further by publishing the names of the defendants in the lawsuit on September 21, in a piece titled "Cornell Won't, We Will." The national organization of the Chi Phi fraternity has publicly stated it acted quickly in 2024 to expel the Cornell members named in the sexual assault lawsuit, marking the first time they've explained their handling of the episode.

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