A Cornell University student who was repulsed by the allegations against his fraternity brothers gave the alleged victim a crucial piece of evidence: a Snapchat message offering “free p–sy” in the form of a student who was allegedly incapacitated, the woman’s attorney, Thomas Giuffra, told The Post on Monday.
Giuffra also accused Cornell Police and the local upstate district attorney of failing to properly pursue the case. He said Cornell University further compounded the alleged victim’s ordeal by refusing to refund her tuition, effectively forcing the 20-year-old to remain enrolled on the same Ithaca, New York, campus as the men she accused while she considered transferring elsewhere.
According to Giuffra, the district attorney’s office did not conduct its own investigation two years ago and instead left the matter to campus police. As a result, he said, potentially important evidence has been lost, leaving the disturbing group-chat message about “free p–sy” as one of the few remaining key pieces of evidence in the alleged gang-rape case.
Giuffra said an anonymous Chi Phi fraternity member who considered the message “honorable” later shared it with his client.
“Had members of the fraternity been interviewed, and leads followed up, I believe we would have much more detail about what had occurred,” the lawyer said.
No one has been charged in connection with the allegations. However, after the woman filed a civil lawsuit in Manhattan earlier this month, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced that his office was reopening the investigation, citing details he said were previously unknown about what may have happened.
Giuffra said Cornell also worsened the situation by denying his client’s request for a tuition refund after the alleged gang rape, preventing her from leaving the school and enrolling elsewhere.
Because she does not come from a wealthy family, the decision effectively left her on campus for months, the lawyer said. Her mother traveled to Ithaca to care for her.
“Not a lot of humanity thrown around,” Giuffra said.
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Cornell did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Giuffra sharply criticized the authorities’ handling of the case from the beginning.
“Other than her initial contact with Cornell Police, she was not contacted by investigators from the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office or any investigators trained in interviewing rape survivors,” Giuffra said of his client.
“It is challenging for me to understand how a thorough criminal investigation could have been conducted when she never spoke with anyone other than the officer who took her original complaint,” Giuffra told The Post.
Van Houten said Monday that the woman’s original account of the night did not state that she had been “drugged against her will or gang-raped.” He pointed to a six-page statement she provided to Cornell University Police at the time.
Graphic excerpts from that initial statement were posted on the Tompkins County district attorney’s website Monday. Van Houten said the release was intended to “clear up the misperceptions of our decision.”
Although Giuffra said he welcomed the reopening of the investigation, he questioned whether authorities could still conduct a full inquiry effectively.
“The defensive posture I have gleaned from the DA’s statements leads me to believe that they recognize that there were failures, and they are trying to excuse them,” Giuffra said.
“While I do not care for the attempt to blame Ms. Doe for these failures, we appreciate and support any efforts to prosecute the parties responsible for the assaults and will fully cooperate with the District Attorney’s Office to hold these men accountable.”
Giuffra said the account in the lawsuit largely matches the woman’s initial interview, including repeated references to heavy ketamine use. Any differences in the level of detail and length of the accounts, he said, are “because I took the time to meet with Ms. Doe multiple times and learn the specific facts of what had occurred.”
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