Cornell University is facing another reported rape allegation on campus, days after a former student filed a civil lawsuit accusing seven fraternity members of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 2024.
A third party reported the latest allegation to Cornell University Police on September 23. The incident reportedly occurred four days earlier inside Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall, a residence hall on the university’s North Campus.
A Cornell spokesperson told Our News Outlet that police interviewed the person accused in the report, who said the encounter was consensual.
The university did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about whether the investigation is still active.
Cornell’s online crime log currently categorizes the rape report as “pending.” No additional details were immediately released.
The Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office has been asked whether it was notified of the allegation and whether prosecutors are weighing criminal charges.
The report comes as the Ivy League university faces growing scrutiny over allegations that seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity drugged and raped a female student in October 2024.
The former student, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit earlier this month describing the alleged assault at the fraternity’s house.
Cornell University is facing another rape allegation just days after a former student filed a civil lawsuit claiming she was “gang-raped” at a fraternity house in 2024
Doe alleges the attack occurred at the Chi Phi house (above) late on October 19, 2024
Doe was 20 at the time. In her complaint, she alleges that she was given alcohol, pressured to take ketamine and repeatedly sexually assaulted as she became increasingly incapacitated.
According to the lawsuit, one fraternity member sent a message to Chi Phi’s active-members Snapchat group during the alleged assault, telling others there was “free p***y” upstairs—a reference to Doe.
The complaint alleges that additional fraternity members entered the room. Doe says the assaults continued until about 5.45am, when she lost consciousness.
No criminal charges were filed at the time. Prosecutors said Doe’s sworn statement to Cornell University Police characterized the drug use and sexual activity as voluntary and consensual, leaving them without a legal basis to bring charges.
Her lawsuit, filed nearly two years later, offers a starkly different account. It alleges that Doe was already too intoxicated to consent and became progressively more incapacitated throughout the night.
Cornell also conducted disciplinary proceedings involving the accused students, which the university says resulted in suspensions and expulsions. Doe’s lawsuit alleges that the students were permitted to “mitigate their conduct by submitting essays.” In a statement , however, Cornell said no student received an essay assignment as the sole punishment.
The lawsuit has triggered widespread outrage and renewed questions about how Cornell and local authorities handled the allegations.
According to the court filing, one of the men posted in the fraternity’s active-members Snapchat group that there was “free p***y” upstairs, referring to Doe
District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said his office had received numerous calls, emails and voicemails from members of the public urging him to reconsider the original decision.
Van Houten’s office announced Monday that it had reopened the criminal investigation. A sex-crimes prosecutor has been assigned to prepare the case for presentation to a grand jury.
‘Seeking justice sometimes requires us to reconsider or reopen cases when we are provided with additional evidence… getting to the truth is the goal in this case,’ Van Houten said.
Van Houten said his office did not conduct a parallel independent investigation in 2024, but instead reviewed Doe’s statement at the request of Cornell University Police to determine whether her allegations constituted a crime.
He added that a screenshot of the ‘free p***y’ Snapchat message chain shared in Doe’s lawsuit was never provided to his office.
YOU MAY ALSO READ: Case Keenum, 38-Year-Old Veteran QB, Shines Against Eagles as Fans Erupt
Doe’s attorney Thomas Giuffra told Our News Outlet that he considers the Snapchat messages a critical piece of evidence that he claims was provided to Cornell in 2024.
Giuffra has also questioned how thorough the initial investigation was, claiming investigators carried out little meaningful follow-up after she first reported the allegations to Cornell PD.
An investigation by the local DA’s office led to no criminal charges being filed in the case at the time. The case was reopened over the weekend following mounting public pressure
In a statement shared Monday, Cornell said it supports the DA’s decision to revisit Doe’s allegations.
The university said it separately conducted a months-long Title IX investigation in which the complainant and accused students were able to testify and present evidence before a panel of faculty and staff.
‘Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false,’ a spokesperson for Cornell said.
‘A continuation of the false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case is irresponsible, will make survivors feel less safe and supported, and will perpetuate the underreporting of sexual assault.’
The school added that Chi Phi’s Xi chapter has remained barred from campus since 2024.
Doe has said the fallout from the alleged attack continues to dominate her life.
In a sworn statement filed with her lawsuit, she described what happened as ‘devastating and humiliating’ and said she stopped attending Cornell because of the alleged assault.
Giuffra told Our News Outlet last week that she has since dropped out of college altogether and continues to struggle with the trauma.
Doe said in her sworn statement that she has suffered anxiety, depression and sleepless nights.
‘She is basically stalled, and her life is devoted to dealing with the trauma,’ Giuffra said. ‘It’s like a constant, constant reminder.’
In a statement shared Monday, Cornell said it supports the DA’s decision to revisit Doe’s allegations
Giuffra described Doe as a young woman from a small town who had achieved something unusual for where she grew up by making it to an Ivy League university, only to see that life derailed after the alleged attack.
‘She’s not some rich kid who went to private schools and all that,’ he said. ‘She was somebody who came from part of the country where not a lot of people were going to Ivy League schools, and she made that accomplishment – and now she’s dropped out of Cornell.
‘Those boys will go on and live their lives just fine, whereas my client is not going to have that benefit.’
Chi Phi’s national office said over the weekend that the allegations were ‘deeply concerning’ and that anyone reporting sexual violence deserves to be treated with ‘compassion, dignity and respect.’
The fraternity said sexual violence was ‘fundamentally incompatible’ with its values and its ‘Building Better Men’ mission, adding that it could not address the specific allegations while litigation is pending but was taking the case seriously.
All seven defendants have now been served with the lawsuit, court records show. Our News Outlet has contacted each of them for comment.
Jeremy Saland, an attorney for one of the accused, denied Doe’s allegations in their entirety and said he welcomed the DA’s decision to reinvestigate the claims.
‘We are confident an honest examination will exonerate him once again,’ Saland said.
