An attorney representing a Cornell University student who accused several fraternity members of gang-raping her is rejecting claims that recently disclosed text messages prove the encounter was consensual.
Thomas Giuffra told Our News Outlet that his client, identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe, stands by her account that she was drugged and sexually assaulted at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.
Giuffra was responding to text messages published by TMZ on Thursday. In exchanges with two of the men named in her allegations, Matthew Ingalls and Jonathan Newell, Doe appeared to minimize or reframe what had happened.
In one exchange with Newell, she wrote that “none of the sexual stuff was illegal.” She also referred to the encounter as a “gangbang” and wrote that it was “our body our choice.”
Giuffra said the messages should not be interpreted as evidence that Doe consented to the sexual activity.
The lawyer said his client displayed what he called “classic symptoms of delayed recognition”—a process in which an alleged assault victim does not immediately understand the seriousness or criminal nature of what occurred.
“This is a well-known phenomenon which 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 men named in the allegations—Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar—have not been charged. All deny the accusations.
The attorney for a Cornell student who accused fraternity members of gang rape has rejected suggestions that newly released text messages establish the encounter was consensual
The fraternity members have maintained that they did not sexually assault Doe. Those who acknowledge engaging in sexual activity with her say it was consensual.
Local prosecutors chose not to pursue criminal charges. Cornell, however, opened a Title IX investigation after the 2024 allegations, and the university ultimately expelled Newell and Ingalls.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul appointed Attorney General Letitia James last week to examine whether Doe was the victim of a crime. The newly publicized messages could provide defense attorneys with material to argue that a future jury should harbor reasonable doubt.
The messages show Doe anxiously contacting Newell and Ingalls about rumors circulating across the Cornell campus. She said she feared her “reputation is destroyed.”
The conversations included efforts to determine who had started the rumors. Both men told Doe they had attempted to stop the gossip.
At the same time, the exchanges appear to conflict with aspects of the rape allegations outlined in Doe’s civil lawsuit. In one message to Newell, she wrote: “At the end of the day none of the sexual stuff was illegal, and honestly i really liked being w u and matt.”
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“I don’t think we should feel any shame for the part. our body our choice asf,” she added.
Giuffra said the lawsuit against the seven fraternity members contains a “mountain of evidence” supporting Doe’s allegations, despite the publication of the messages between her and Ingalls and Newell.
“It does a disservice to survivors to selectively utilize information without understanding what it means,” the attorney said.
The messages show accuser Jane Doe telling fraternity member Matthew Ingalls, pictured above, that she feared campus rumors had left her reputation “destroyed”
‘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
‘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.
‘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.’
