A Snapchat group chat among Cornell fraternity members included the message “Shop still open?” referring to a female student allegedly being drugged and gang-raped in their house, newly obtained texts show.
The exchange between Phi Chi fraternity brothers unfolded on the night of Oct. 19, 2024, as the woman, identified in court papers only as “Jane Doe,” was allegedly assaulted by seven students over several hours at their Ithaca chapter house. The texts were New York and detailed in a 101-page lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this month.
“Yea,” another member flippantly replied to the “shop still open” question, according to the messages.
Earlier that night, around 1:42 a.m., one of the New York frat brothers announced there was “free p–sy” upstairs in reference to the woman, the suit alleges. “I f–king love Chi Phi,” one member responded, while another added, “Like you can walk in and whip it out.”
The woman had been bar hopping with her sorority sisters before heading, visibly intoxicated, to the fraternity house to hang out with a male friend who belonged to the chapter, according to her lawsuit. Once there, her friend propositioned her for a threesome with one of his fraternity brothers, to which she was incapable of consenting because of her drunken state, the filing argues.
She was pressured into snorting ketamine for the first time while also consuming high-proof rum and marijuana, court documents claim. The defendants then “began engaging in sexual acts with Plaintiff, all without her consent,” the suit alleges. One man left, another entered to take his place, and after the “free p–sy” Snapchat went out, more men came, according to the filing.
Her phone sat on the other side of the room, and “she felt as if there was no way for her to escape this room full of predatory fraternity men,” the lawsuit states. The alleged assault continued for roughly four hours, until 5:45 a.m., while she was completely incapacitated, court papers claim.
Two days after the attack, one of the accused fraternity brothers messaged the woman to apologize for “how things went down,” according to texts between the pair reported. The young man, who was not identified, admitted he should have “shut it down and kick[ed] people out before it got way out of hand.”
The woman allegedly replied, “Non[e] of the sexual stuff was illegal,” while noting her memory was “super clouded too.” Her lawyer said he was aware of texts between the pair but could not verify their contents.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who reopened an investigation into the woman’s claims after initially declining to press charges, addressed her shifting account. “We all process trauma differently,” he said. “So we definitely acknowledge that she may have different recollections, may have different interpretations, of what happened to her.”
Van Houten said Monday that her sworn initial statement at the time “did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped.” His office and campus police investigated the accusations last year but declined to prosecute because the evidence as presented wasn’t there, he said. The DA has faced heavy criticism for his office’s handling of the case.
The woman’s lawyer countered that the alleged attack was reported to both campus and Ithaca police, who failed to follow up on key evidence including the group chat.
The seven fraternity brothers named in the lawsuit are Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris, and Scott Kretzschmar. None have been charged. The Chi Phi chapter was closed in 2024 and remains barred from campus. Some students named were allowed to “mitigate their conduct by submitting essays to Cornell,” according to court documents, and some were suspended or expelled; the woman’s lawyer told The Post that two of the seven were expelled.
Kretzschmar’s lawyer, Jeremy Saland, denied his client participated in any sexual abuse or other acts in the suit, including allegations he poured ketamine onto the then-20-year-old student’s body and snorted it off her. Saland said a “hair follicle test” showed no ketamine in Kretzschmar’s system, though that test has not been independently reviewed. “She was not undressed. He didn’t see her under duress. She wasn’t having a hard time articulating anything,” the lawyer said of the woman and his client.
Lopes’s lawyer, Andrew Miltenberg, said his client “unequivocally denies the allegations against him,” which he said were “previously investigated” by Cornell. “The allegations now being made publicly differ from what was reported and investigated during that process,” he said. Lopes is accused of sexually assaulting the woman as well as pouring ketamine on her body and snorting it off her.
Sarabia was fired Monday from his job at a Wells Fargo office in Charlotte, North Carolina, following the new allegations, according to reports.