Girl stated she ‘felt like bait’ throughout alleged Cornell gang rape

A lady who says she was gang-raped at a Cornell College fraternity advised the college’s investigators final yr that she “felt like bait” because the attackers have been “like lions round me,” in response to information from the college’s disciplinary investigation.

The paperwork, reviewed Friday by The Related Press, embody excerpts of interviews Cornell’s investigators did with the lady and the boys she accused and shed extra mild on the college’s dealing with of the case.

Whereas closely redacted, the information provide a fuller however generally conflicting timeline of occasions and a glimpse at how the boys responded to the allegations. Some disputed the lady’s account and stated they weren’t concerned in any assault.

The girl, recognized in courtroom papers solely as Jane Doe, sued Cornell and 7 former college students final month, alleging she was given ketamine and repeatedly assaulted at a fraternity home in October 2024.

She went to campus police three weeks after the encounter and gave an in depth account of what occurred, however the native district lawyer determined to not file prison prices or push for extra investigation after reviewing a police abstract of her interview.

Solely the college’s investigation, below the federal Title IX regulation, persevered, with a aim of deciding self-discipline for the scholars concerned.

Lawsuit by one of many accused males reveals particulars on investigation

This week, a lawyer for one of many accused males filed paperwork from the college’s investigation in a lawsuit that seeks to overturn the college’s punishment and take away it from his tutorial document. They embody a 99-page report on a campus listening to panel’s disciplinary findings and a abstract of occasions submitted by the college’s attorneys.

Although solely a fraction of the hundreds of pages amassed within the investigation, the information present the breadth of the college’s inquiry — together with 50 interviews with 32 witnesses and 12 days of hearings.

Late Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed Lawyer Common Letitia James as a particular prosecutor to steer a renewed prison investigation, saying she had misplaced religion in Tompkins County District Lawyer Matthew Van Houten.

In response to the Title IX paperwork filed in courtroom, that are solely a portion of the whole investigation, the lady and several other of the boys gave investigators comparable accounts of drug use and sexual exercise that occurred on the Chi Phi fraternity home — however differed sharply in how a lot of it was consensual.

Snapchat messages drew different males

The girl had been invited there by a fraternity member for whom she had lengthy held robust romantic emotions and sexual curiosity, in response to the disciplinary panel’s findings. The panel discovered that she initially consented to intercourse with that man and certainly one of his mates, although she later alleged in her lawsuit that she had been pressured into taking ketamine, marijuana and alcohol and was too intoxicated to consent.

Then different males started displaying up within the room, some drawn by a message one of many fraternity brothers despatched to a Snapchat group at 1:42 a.m. utilizing a vulgar time period to promote {that a} girl’s physique was freely accessible. Later, one other individual within the chat requested if the “store” was nonetheless open.

The girl advised investigators that her intoxication had rendered her partly defenseless. She stated she remembered smoking marijuana and stated she knew she took ketamine, her first time doing so, however didn’t have an unbiased reminiscence of it. The drug, she stated, left her in a state of “imprecise consciousness.”

“You seem like an working human being,” she advised college investigators at a listening to in Might of 2025. “You don’t look lifeless or asleep essentially. So, lights are on, however no one’s residence. Your mind shouldn’t be performing at its correct stage.”

She stated a number of the males inhaled medicine off her unclothed physique.

“I felt like bait. I felt like lions round me. It simply was a very debilitating place to be in,” she advised investigators.

Accused pupil says he solely entered room for a wellness test

One of many males the lady accused of snorting medicine off her physique — however not taking part in different components of the assault — denied her account.

He advised investigators he was within the room for not more than 5 minutes, and didn’t go there for intercourse.

“That was not our intentions in any respect. We have been simply testing to see if all the things” was OK, he stated.

He insisted that he didn’t see the lady bare at any time — she was below mattress coverings, he stated — and didn’t partake in drug use. He stated he sat on a sofa and chatted for a couple of minutes, then left after the lady and one other man there each indicated they have been all proper.

A Cornell disciplinary panel later cleared him of sexual assault or exploitation allegations, however discovered him answerable for tried sexual exploitation as a result of it did not consider his declare to have gone to the room for altruistic causes.

The fraternity member, who’s difficult Cornell’s disciplinary course of in courtroom, additionally posted within the Snapchat dialog, saying what was occurring within the room was not a joke, including: “Firsthand pov not a bit.” The coed later advised investigators he didn’t bear in mind sending the message, in response to Cornell’s account.

Girl’s lawsuit seeks more durable penalties

In her lawsuit, Jane Doe accused two of the opposite males who entered the room of performing intercourse acts on her with out her consent, whereas she was partially incapacitated. She accused one other man of kissing her with out her consent. In response to the Title IX paperwork, Jane Doe advised investigators two different males stood on the foot of the mattress performing “extra like voyeurs than something.”

The lawsuit seeks to carry all seven males answerable for rape. She is asking for unspecified damages.

Cornell hasn’t detailed the outcomes of its investigation, however stated it resulted in some college students being expelled.

The person who filed the lawsuit difficult his punishment was allowed to remain at Cornell, however he was ordered to keep away from the lady, take a category on sexual harassment and bystander intervention, and write a paper reflecting on the circumstances for which he was discovered accountable and embody a proposal to coach different college students on stopping sexual harassment.