A lawyer for the woman accusing seven Cornell University fraternity members of sexual assault claims one of the so-called “Cornell 7” was expelled after having sex with her without “affirmative consent.”
The accuser, referred to in a civil lawsuit as Jane Doe, alleges that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity following a party in October 2024.
Jonathan Newell, one of the defendants in the lawsuit, is believed to have been expelled after a Title IX investigation by the university, attorney Thomas Giuffra told TMZ.
“We believe that [the posted text messages] were part of the Title IX process that led to Mr. Newell’s expulsion after 12 days of evidentiary hearings and extensive documentary evidence,” Giuffra said.
“It is undisputed that the Hearing Panel found Mr. Newell violated Ms. Doe’s bodily safety by beginning intercourse without her consent.”
A person who reviewed the panel’s decision said it found that Newell had not obtained “affirmative consent.”
Giuffra also said he believes a Snapchat post by Newell—featuring a photograph of Doe on a bed alongside the message “Free p***y”—resulted in further assaults.
“The Hearing Panel also found that Mr. Newell chose to sexualize and broadcast Ms. Doe’s vulnerability, inviting further abuse that led at least three men unknown to her—and likely more—to sexually abuse her,” Giuffra added.
A lawyer claims one of the so-called “Cornell 7” was expelled from the Ivy League university after having sex with his accuser without “affirmative consent”
Jane Doe, the pseudonym used by the accuser, alleged in a civil lawsuit filed last month that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by seven Chi Phi fraternity members after a party in October 2024
Earlier Friday, Giuffra told Our News Outlet that his client continues to stand by her allegations that she was drugged and sexually assaulted at the Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024.
He dismissed text messages published by TMZ on Thursday in which Jane Doe appeared to downplay the alleged assault while communicating with two of the men she accused: Newell and Matthew Ingalls.
In messages to Newell, she wrote that “none of the sexual stuff was illegal” and referred to the incident as a “gangbang” and “our body our choice.”
Giuffra, however, said the messages did not establish that the encounter was consensual.
The attorney argued that Jane Doe was exhibiting “classic symptoms of delayed recognition”—a response in which an alleged victim may need time to understand the seriousness of what happened and recognize it as a crime.
“This is a well-known phenomenon that is widely reported in medical and psychological literature,” Giuffra said.
“Most rape survivors do not immediately identify what happened to them as rape.”
Ingalls, Newell and the other accused fraternity members—Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar—have not been charged with a crime. All seven deny the allegations.
Thousands of students, faculty members and supporters gather in the center of Cornell University’s campus in Ithaca
A student walks past a sign criticizing Cornell University’s administration over its handling of a sexual assault case
The fraternity brothers have insisted that they did not sexually assault Jane Doe, and those that admit to sexual activity have said the incident was consensual.
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Local prosecutors declined to bring charges against the men, however the allegations from 2024 led Cornell to launch a Title IX investigation that resulted in Newell and Ingalls both being expelled.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul last week appointed her Attorney General Letitia James to investigate whether Jane Doe had been the victim of a crime.
In the messages revealed on Thursday, Jane Doe was shown to have been nervously messaging Newell and Ingalls about rumors of their tryst spreading around Cornell’s campus, and she said she was worried her ‘reputation is destroyed.’
They spoke of ‘narrowing down the suspects’ for who spread the rumors, and both men reassured Jane Doe that they had tried to shut down the gossip.
However, the messages also appeared to contradict the allegations of rape that Jane Doe brought in her civil lawsuit, including telling Newell: ‘At the end of the day none of the sexual stuff was illegal, and honestly i really liked being w u and matt.’
‘I don’t think we should feel any shame for the part. our body our choice asf,’ she wrote.
Giuffra told Our News Outlet that despite the release of the text messages between Jane Doe and the two men, the civil lawsuit against the seven fraternity brothers contained a ‘mountain of evidence’ to support her claims.
‘Survivors are unable to identify an assault as rape until they process the event and engage with trusted friends who help them reach the point of acceptance,’ he said.
The texts show the accuser Jane Doe told fraternity brother Matthew Ingalls (above) that she was concerned her reputation was ‘destroyed’ by campus rumors
‘It does a disservice to survivors to selectively utilize information without understanding what it means,’ the attorney said.
‘Following the assault, Ms. Doe exhibited the classic symptoms of delayed recognition. This is a well-known phenomenon which is widely reported in medical and psychological literature.
‘Most rape survivors do not immediately identify what happened to them as rape.
‘In the immediate aftermath of a rape, the brain processes trauma through shock, dissociation, appeasing, or masking distress rather than immediately identifying it as rape.
‘When the perpetrator is a romantic partner or friend, victims frequently second-guess their own perception. This is exactly what Ms. Doe was doing here.’
Giuffra added that Jane Doe’s alleged experience involved alcohol and drugs, which can result in ‘confusion, memory-gaps or self-blame that obscures the emotional reality of non-consensual acts at first.’
Protests erupted on Cornell’s campus this week as Jane Doe’s case continues to spark controversy across the nation
‘Once Ms. Doe was able to accept the fact that she was a survivor of sexual assault, she vigorously confronted the perpetrators and pursued her rights.’
‘Unfortunately, we live in a world of 5 second clips without the ability or desire to understand the mental processing of rape survivors and the anguish that they go through in processing their trauma.
‘We have tried to explain this in interviews previously. The desire for a simple answer to a complex question does a disservice to survivors.
‘Delayed recognition has been studied extensively in medical science.’
