Cornell University student Jane Doe has withdrawn her lawsuit against a man she incorrectly identified as the president of the Chi Phi fraternity when she says she was gang-raped.
Doe has accused multiple Chi Phi members of sexually assaulting her in October 2024. Her original civil complaint named Orazio Petito.
Petito was not accused of participating in the alleged assault and was mistakenly identified as president of the fraternity’s chapter.
A notice of discontinuance filed Tuesday confirms that Petito has been removed from the lawsuit.
Petito’s attorney, Eric Bernstein, said the claims were dismissed after it became clear that his client was not president of Chi Phi’s Xi Chapter when the alleged assault occurred. The identity of the chapter’s president at the time has not been established.
“We’re pleased with the dismissal of the case against my client, and justice was served,” Bernstein told Newsday.
Doe, who has accused Cornell of mishandling her complaints, has also issued a letter criticizing University President Michael Kotlikoff’s response to the alleged assault.
In the letter, obtained by the New York Times, Doe said she reported the alleged attack and that Kotlikoff later spoke with the president of her sorority. During that conversation, she said, he asked: “Why did she wait so long to report it?”
Cornell student Jane Doe has withdrawn her lawsuit against a man she mistakenly identified as the Chi Phi fraternity president at the time she alleges she was gang-raped.
Umar Matthew Ingalls and Jonathan Newell were expelled after Doe accused seven fraternity members of gang-raping her in October 2024.
The letter, addressed to Cornell’s Dean of Faculty and the Speaker of the Faculty Senate, outlines Doe’s dissatisfaction with the Kotlikoff administration.
Doe wrote that the president’s reported initial reaction to her complaint felt “as an expression of doubt in the veracity of my story.”
She said that, according to her account of the conversation with the then-president of her Delta Delta Delta sorority, other faculty and staff members appeared troubled by Kotlikoff’s question and considered it inappropriate.
“When the then-Tri Delta President relayed this conversation to me, I felt unsupported and disbelieved by President Kotlikoff,” Doe wrote in the letter dated October 14.
“It diminished my confidence in the administration’s ability to approach my experience with the understanding, sensitivity, and fairness I had hoped for and expected from what had been my dream school.”
Kotlikoff faced a visibly angry faculty last Wednesday as a university meeting highlighted growing frustration with his administration’s handling of Doe’s alleged rape.
He acknowledged that mistakes had been made while defending his leadership during questions from Cornell’s Faculty Senate, which later considered a no-confidence resolution involving his administration.
The meeting was not open to the public. However, an audio recording obtained by The Associated Press captured Kotlikoff asking for additional time to introduce reforms and promote cultural changes in student social life.
Doe alleges that she was sexually assaulted and exploited by seven men in this room at the Chi Phi fraternity house on October 19, 2024.
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She said the evening escalated after Newell allegedly posted in a fraternity Snapchat group that there was “free p***y” upstairs.
He insisted experienced leadership was necessary to confront problems ‘that are not simplistic, they’re not easy, they can’t be brushed aside with a wave of a hand.’
Replacing a president isn’t the right way to address the situation and would harm Cornell’s reputation, Kotlikoff argued.
Kotlikoff also left open the possibility of sweeping restrictions on Greek life, saying Cornell needed to determine whether fraternities could operate safely.
Doe filed a lawsuit last month alleging that Chi Phi brothers Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar sexually assaulted or exploited her on October 19, 2024.
All of those men have denied her allegations, saying either that their interactions were consensual or that they weren’t involved.
Doe claimed that the seven men engaged in sexual acts with her while she was ‘completely incapacitated’ and without her consent. She says the ordeal continued until she lost consciousness.
She said the men manipulated her into ingesting ketamine and alcohol, and that other men entered the room while she was incapacitated, the lawsuit said.
She also alleged that Snapchat messages describing her as sexually available to anyone at the house circulated among fraternity members without her knowledge.
Doe, then a 20-year-old sophomore, reported the alleged assault to Cornell police in November 2024, three weeks after she said it occurred.
Doe’s lawsuit sparked national outrage over the handling of the case. Her supporters are seen gathering in Ithaca, New York for a protest on October 13, 2026
Campus police investigated and sent a summary of their findings to the district attorney’s office, which relied on the information in deciding not to bring criminal charges. Separately, Cornell conducted a Title IX investigation.
The Chi Phi chapter at Cornell was shut down, and the university has said it expelled some students and suspended others.
Cornell last week suspended all parties and social events at fraternity houses through the end of the 2026-27 academic year and implemented a new ‘zero tolerance’ policy that would immediately suspend chapters for violations.
Crimes reported on Cornell’s campus are generally investigated by campus police, a department that has full law enforcement powers but is controlled by the university.
The campus police force operates independently from municipal police in Ithaca, New York, where the university is located.
Its officers investigated the 2024 gang rape allegations and presented their initial findings to the Tompkins County district attorney, who declined to prosecute within weeks of the woman making her first report to police.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul removed the district attorney from the case this month after a public outcry over the lack of charges.
The investigation is now being led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, while Cornell has hired former Deputy US Attorney General Sally Yates to conduct an independent review of the university’s response.
