A group of Cornell University fraternity members drugged and gang-raped a female student during an alleged hours-long assault at their campus house, according to a new lawsuit. The complaint claims one of the men sent a disturbing Snapchat message inviting others upstairs.
The civil lawsuit, filed Wednesday in New York Supreme Court, identifies the woman as Jane Doe. It alleges that she arrived at the Chi Phi house late on October 19, 2024, already heavily intoxicated after an evening of drinking, and was given more alcohol once inside.
According to the complaint, one fraternity member pulled Doe, who was 20 at the time, aside and asked whether she would have a threesome with him and another male student.
Doe alleges that she was already too impaired to consent. Despite that, the lawsuit claims, she was taken upstairs with the two men, pressured to snort ketamine, given marijuana and high-proof liquor, and sexually assaulted.
At about 1:42 a.m., one of the men allegedly posted a message in the fraternity’s active-members Snapchat group saying there was “free p***y” upstairs, a reference to Doe, according to the court filing.
The complaint says additional fraternity members entered the room shortly afterward. Over the next four hours, Doe was allegedly assaulted repeatedly—at times by more than one person—as she became increasingly incapacitated and eventually lost consciousness.
The lawsuit names seven defendants, all of whom were Cornell students and members of Chi Phi at the time of the alleged incident.
An attorney for one of the accused has “wholeheartedly” denied Doe’s allegations.
“We possess documents that thoroughly corroborate our position, including the plaintiff’s own words, statements from other parties, and scientific evidence demonstrating that the claims against him are false,” the defendant’s attorney told Our News Outlet.
We contacted five of the six other defendants for comment but had not received responses. One could not be reached.
According to the filing, one of the men allegedly posted in the active-members Snapchat group that there was “free p***y” upstairs, referring to Doe
Doe alleges that the assault occurred at the Chi Phi house (above) late on October 19, 2024
In a sworn statement, Doe said the alleged assault ultimately forced her to leave Cornell and left her dealing with anxiety and depression.
“What happened to me was devastating and humiliating,” she wrote. Doe added that she fears being identified could harm her relationships and career and “permanently tarnish” the reputation she has worked to rebuild.
Cornell University is also named as a defendant. Doe claims the university failed to protect her despite allegedly being aware of risks involving sexual violence and drug use within its Greek system.
According to the lawsuit, Doe reported the alleged assault to campus police on November 8, 2024, after friends encouraged her to come forward.
Cornell temporarily suspended Chi Phi and the seven students before beginning an investigation the following January.
The university held at least 12 hearings concerning the allegations in May 2025. The lawsuit says the investigation has since ended, but it does not disclose the findings or whether any disciplinary measures were imposed.
The complaint states that Ithaca police were still investigating when the lawsuit was filed. It does not indicate that any of the seven men had been criminally charged.
Repeated attempts to obtain comment from Ithaca and Cornell University Police were unsuccessful.
A spokesperson for the Tompkins County District Attorney’s office told Our News Outlet that a criminal investigation into the accusations did not result in charges being brought against the seven men.
An attorney for one of the accused also told Our News Outlet that his client has had no contact with law enforcement.
‘[L]aw enforcement has never contacted us, nor has there ever been a finding of even probable cause,’ he said.
‘If any investigation has been ongoing since 2024 or any time, we welcome the opportunity to be heard and are fully confident it will confirm absolutely no criminality on [my client’s] part.’
In an amended statement, he added: ‘Our system of justice allows anyone to make a criminal complaint, even a wrongful one, but it is lost on no one that the criminal investigation led to no charges against [my client] because…Simply, there was absolutely no criminality on my client’s part and he is completely innocent. Period.’
Doe’s attorney said the apparent lack of contact with at least one of the accused only reinforced his doubts about the scope of the investigation.
‘I don’t think it was investigated at all, in any kind of meaningful way,’ he said, adding that police did take a statement from Doe but claimed there was ‘no meaningful follow-up.’
‘I don’t think it’d be a very big leap to think that there wasn’t a particularly thorough investigation,’ he said.
A spokesperson for Cornell University declined to respond to a list of detailed questions, sharing only: ‘We have no comment on this pending litigation.’
An investigation by the local DA’s office led to no criminal charges being filed in the case
Across more than 100 pages, the lawsuit reconstructs the night of the alleged attack in granular detail – beginning hours before Doe ever reached the Chi Phi house.
Doe had been drinking vodka before heading to Moonies Bar & Nightclub at around 8.30pm, the complaint says.
She was already intoxicated when she arrived at the downtown Ithaca bar, where a bouncer marked both of her hands with an ‘X’ to show she was under 21. Despite that, Doe alleges she was served alcohol inside.
She and several friends went on to another bar. Then, at around 11pm, Doe became separated from the group and headed alone to the Chi Phi fraternity house to see a member whom the lawsuit describes as her friend.
The lawsuit says she ‘stumbled’ to the fraternity house and was visibly intoxicated when she arrived, having consumed the equivalent of roughly 10 standard drinks in the previous three hours.
Several fraternity members allegedly let her inside, where her friend greeted her with another beer before the pair began dancing.
He later pulled Doe away from the main room and asked if she wanted to have a threesome with him and another fraternity member, according to the complaint.
Doe says she was already too drunk to consent but alleges she was led upstairs and eventually into a room where the second man was sitting on a couch.
There, the two men allegedly began passing around a plastic bag containing a white powder they identified as ketamine, the lawsuit claims.
Doe says she had never taken the drug before but claims the pair pressured her into snorting it while also giving her marijuana and high-proof liquor.
Soon afterwards, she alleges, the first sexual assault began.
The lawsuit claims one of the men forced Doe to perform oral sex while the other allegedly raped her, repeatedly slapping her hard enough to leave bruising.
One eventually stopped and went to sleep, the complaint claims, while the other allegedly continued trying to grope Doe even as she repeatedly pushed his hand away.
A third fraternity member then entered the room and allegedly began kissing Doe before he and the other man placed her on a bed and sexually assaulted her again, the lawsuit alleges.
It was during that alleged assault, at around 1.42am, that one of the men allegedly sent a message to the fraternity’s active-members Snapchat group, named ‘Chi Phi Actives’.
The message told other Chi Phi members there was ‘free p***y’ upstairs, a screenshot included in the filing shows.
‘Like you can walk in and whip it out,’ another fraternity member allegedly responded in the thread.
The lawsuit accuses the sender of using the message to encourage other Chi Phi members to join what it describes as the ‘gang rape’ of Doe. The message allegedly marked the point when the circle of attackers widened.
Doe said the fear and humiliation the alleged attack caused led to her dropping out of Cornell
More fraternity members entered the room soon afterwards, the lawsuit says, prompting Doe to pull the bed covers over her naked body in an attempt to hide.
One of the newly arrived men allegedly grabbed her face and began kissing her before Doe pushed him away. By that point, Doe claims her phone was across the room and she felt unable to escape.
Another man allegedly poured ketamine onto his genitals and ordered Doe to snort it before climbing back into bed and groping her again.
The lawsuit claims all seven men then poured ketamine across Doe’s body and snorted it as she lay on her back.
Eventually, five of the men left the room, while two allegedly took Doe into a smaller room believed to be the fraternity president’s office.
There, the pair allegedly prepared more ketamine and instructed her to snort it. By then, Doe was ‘completely incapacitated’, the complaint claims.
The two men then allegedly raped her, according to the lawsuit.
The alleged assault ended at around 5.45am, when Doe says she lost consciousness.
It would be nearly three weeks before Doe formally reported the allegations to Cornell University Police, after friends encouraged her to come forward, the lawsuit says.
Cornell temporarily suspended Chi Phi and the seven men on November 8 and later publicly acknowledged ‘serious and deeply disturbing allegations of drug abuse and sexual violence at the Chi Phi fraternity house.’
The lawsuit further claims the suspended students were given the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays to Cornell.
Doe’s attorney, who has handled sex-abuse cases for years, said the allegations were among the most disturbing he has encountered.
‘The lack of humanity is… just the fact that there were all these guys that didn’t stop it and didn’t raise the cry is just to me so shocking,’ he told Our News Outlet.
He said the alleged Snapchat message summoning other fraternity members upstairs was particularly disturbing.
‘I was absolutely appalled with that invitation to the entire fraternity brotherhood to go and rape this woman,’ he claimed.
Doe is now seeking damages from the seven men for sexual assault, sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Moonies Bar & Nightclub is also named as a defendant, with Doe accusing staff of serving her alcohol despite being underage and allegedly visibly intoxicated
In her sworn statement, Doe accused the seven alleged attackers of ‘heinous sexual abuse’.
‘I truly fear retribution and retaliation resulting from filing this lawsuit,’ Doe wrote, petitioning the judge to continue in the case under a pseudonym.
‘My assailants threatened my safety and wellbeing on numerous occasions, especially plying me with copious amounts of drugs without any regard for the consequences.’
With the criminal investigation resulting in no charges, Doe’s attorney told Our News Outlet the civil case had become the only remaining avenue for redress.
‘The only remedy that’s available is civil,’ he said. ‘Just because somebody’s intoxicated and is an adult doesn’t mean you can gang rape them without consequence.’
Doe’s lawsuit also targets Cornell, accusing the university of failing to protect her despite allegedly knowing of a culture of drug use at Chi Phi and wider risks of sexual violence within its Greek system.
The complaint claims Cornell knew or should have known that the fraternity had a history of ketamine use and says police had responded to a drug-related incident at the Chi Phi house just one week before Doe’s alleged assault. It further alleges the university failed to properly supervise the students or warn Doe of the danger she claims they posed.
Moonies Bar & Nightclub is also named as a defendant, with Doe accusing staff of serving her alcohol despite the X marks on her hands identifying her as under 21 and continuing to serve her to the point of visible intoxication.
