A downtown Ithaca bar accused of serving alcohol to a Cornell student before she was allegedly gang raped at a fraternity has rejected claims that it contributed to her intoxication.
Moonies Bar and Nightclub is accused in a lawsuit filed by the woman, who is suing her alleged attackers, of violating underage drinking laws in the hours before the alleged assault.
The accuser, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, was 20 at the time. She said Moonies’ bouncers marked her hand to indicate that she was underage.
Despite that, she alleged, bartenders served her large quantities of alcohol until she became “visibly intoxicated.” Jane Doe said she consumed the equivalent of 10 drinks in less than three hours.
She said she later “stumbled alone” to the Chi Phi fraternity house, where seven members allegedly raped her during an ordeal that lasted several hours.
In a statement to Our News Outlet, Moonies denied the allegations, saying it had never “unlawfully sold, furnished or assisted in procuring alcoholic beverages to any person under the legal drinking age.”
“Our bartenders strongly followed the rules and only served guests who had wristbands on their hands. No alcohol was served to guests who had a mark on their hands,” the bar said.
The owner also said Jane Doe had briefly worked at another bar he owned. According to him, she “openly discussed the details” of her allegations at the time but “never mentioned being intoxicated or served alcohol by Moonies’ bartender.”
The dispute comes as Jane Doe’s allegations have triggered intense scrutiny and a media firestorm at Cornell University. None of the seven men she accused of sexual assault has been charged in connection with the October 2024 incident, and all deny wrongdoing.
Moonies Bar and Nightclub in downtown Ithaca, New York (inside seen in a stock image), which was accused of serving drinks to a Cornell student before she was allegedly gang raped at a fraternity, has rejected claims that it plied her with alcohol
The accuser, identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe, claimed she was served at the bar “to the point of intoxication” before going to the Chi Phi fraternity house (above) in October 2024
How intoxicated Jane Doe was on the night of the alleged rape has become a central issue in the case.
In audio released by ABC News, Matthew Ingalls, one of the Chi Phi fraternity members accused by Jane Doe, was heard saying he did not believe she was intoxicated when they had sex.
During a phone call recorded by Jane Doe, Ingalls said: “You did tell me you were sober, by the way.”
The recording reflected sharply different accounts of what happened. Jane Doe told Ingalls that he “already knew I was 10 shots deep” when he and six other men allegedly sexually assaulted her.
“If I wanted to take this somewhere, what y’all did would be classified as gang rape,” she told him in a message.
Jane Doe also said she had gone to the emergency room and attended therapy after the alleged assault, citing “so much damage on my body and my brain.”
Ingalls maintained his innocence during the call. He told Jane Doe that she had convinced him she was not intoxicated and had “hadn’t been anywhere” that night before arriving at the fraternity house.
Protests erupted on Cornell’s campus this week amid backlash over the handling of the allegations
One of the men allegedly posted to the fraternity’s active-members Snapchat group saying that there was ‘free p***y’ upstairs, referring to Doe, according to her lawsuit
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Alongside Ingalls, the other Chi Phi fraternity brothers named by Jane Doe in her civil lawsuit are Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar.
None have been arrested or charged with a crime in connection with the lawsuit, and the local district attorney dismissed the case and said there was ‘insufficient evidence to support criminal charges’ following an investigation at the time.
Jane Doe initially gave a sworn statement to investigators saying that she consented to sex with two of the men, but felt increasingly incapacitated as the night went on and more men allegedly joined.
In her civil lawsuit filed last month, Jane Doe alleged that she was pressured to snort ketamine and was sexually assaulted over a seven hour period.
The newly released audio from ABC News shows Jane Doe asking Ingalls for details about the night, including asking how they ended up in a threesome in his fraternity house.
Ingalls responded: ‘So, you come in, say hi, and we start dancing for maybe like three to five minutes… And then I pop the question, you say yes.’
He said they ‘didn’t know who else to bring’ into the threesome, so he found another man on the dancefloor who agreed, ‘and then we go upstairs.’
Jane Doe’s civil lawsuit included harrowing allegations – that the 20-year-old sorority girl was drugged with ketamine and sexually assaulted by seven men over a seven-hour ordeal in a fraternity bedroom
Cornell University and local authorities have been heavily scrutinized for their handling of the case
Jane Doe alleges that several more Chi Phi fraternity brothers then joined them in the room periodically and joined in, and she alleged in a civil lawsuit that they advertised ‘free p***y’ in a Snapchat group chat.
In the audio, Jane Doe told Ingalls she did not remember who all of the men were during the encounter, and said she recalled four men in a bed at one point with more stood around them.
Ingalls responded: ‘I have racked my brain for this mystery. You know, it’s possible that both of us, like, remember this and it’s not true.’
Jane Doe argued back to this, saying: ‘No, because I remember looking up and being like, ‘That is too many people.’
The audio showed that while Ingalls appeared to try and calm Jane Doe’s feelings about the incident, he did not mention that he texted his fraternity group chat during the alleged assault, according to Jane Doe’s lawsuit.
He allegedly posted a photo of Jane Doe to the fraternity group chat, and said, ‘Boys come whip it out’, the lawsuit alleges.
Ingalls and another student were expelled following an investigation into the alleged assault and two others were suspended. Two others were found to not be involved, and one had graduated so could not be punished by the university.
However, after the initial review was carried out, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten declined to bring charges and dropped the case.
Van Houten said there was ‘insufficient evidence to support criminal charges’, and said investigators determined that the sexual activity inside the fraternity house was consensual.
Van Houten also said Jane Doe’s claims in her civil lawsuit are ‘dramatically different’ than her statements to police two years ago.
The decision not to charge the fraternity brothers has since come under scrutiny, leading Van Houten to defend the move in a statement last month, saying the furor over the case has led the public to believe ‘incomplete’ facts.
Van Houten insisted that Jane Doe’s sworn statement in November 2024 ‘did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped’, and said she described her actions as ‘voluntary, conscious, and consensual.’
