The alleged victim in the Cornell fraternity gang rape case told police that several Chi Phi members were bragging about having an “eightsome” with her, according to newly revealed documents from a university review.
Jane Doe, a now-former Cornell student, gave a six-page statement to Cornell Campus Police roughly one month after the alleged October assault, naming multiple fraternity brothers she said participated. She claimed she had been coerced to take drugs and drink to excess before being sexually assaulted at a Chi Phi party.
News of what happened spread rapidly, becoming what she called “public knowledge” across campus by the following day, Oct. 20, 2024. The documents show she texted Matthew Ingalls, one of the fraternity brothers she said she’d had an initial threesome with, on Oct. 23.
“Bro, everyone knows,” Doe wrote in messages collected as part of private Title IX proceedings.
She added that what had happened was “RUINING my life temporarily” and destroying her reputation.
Ingalls, 21, seemingly tried to calm her, writing “how fast nonsense spreads at this school,” and adding that she didn’t have “anything to be ashamed of,” according to the files.
“You’re right,” Doe wrote back. “It’ll get better.”
Behind the scenes, Doe told her roommate to deny anything had happened if asked. But her roommate later told investigators that Doe’s perspective shifted over time. “As the days went on, I think she kind of came to realize that it was something bad. And that she didn’t really enjoy her time there,” the roommate said, according to the Times.
Online chatter amplified the situation. A post on a Greek life forum around this time claimed that Chi Phi had been “gang banging” on campus.
On Oct. 28, Ingalls allegedly apologized to Doe over phone, and her roommate overheard her asking, “How could you let this happen?” according to the Times.
The fraternity’s response further alienated her. Doe was disinvited from a Halloween party at Chi Phi by the fraternity president, who told her it was for her own good, her texts show.
She then fired off another message to Ingalls.
“I knew this was going to happen. The women will always get the short end of the stick. Yall aren’t my friends. Yall are covering your asses,” she wrote, according to the documents.
By early November, Doe’s understanding of the night had crystallized. On Nov. 3, she texted another fraternity brother, Jonathan Newell, 22.
“Let’s be clear that 90% of what happened that night was not consensual,” Doe wrote, according to the documents.
“I was given more [ketamine] than I can remember and I know that I told you I felt uncomfortable and I didn’t know anyone in the room,” she texted.
She told Newell that one of her only memories of the night was snorting ketamine off his penis “in front of everyone like a sex doll/worker,” according to the texts.
“I think I’m done talking to you. I know you lied,” she wrote in her final message to him.
Doe sought medical attention on Nov. 7, requesting a rape kit from an emergency room in Ithaca, New York, after contracting a urinary tract infection, according to the documents. She went to campus police on Nov. 14, giving her statement across two days of interviews.
No criminal charges were brought at that time. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who has since reopened an investigation, defended that decision, saying the documents his office received did not include statements from Doe suggesting rape or coercion.
The case remained out of national headlines until last month, when Doe filed a lawsuit naming seven fraternity brothers who she alleged participated in the abuse, as well as Cornell University, Chi Phi, and other parties. Attorneys for Newell and Ingalls were not immediately available for comment.