(NEW YORK) — A Cornell University student detailed the night that she was allegedly sexually assaulted in a statement to police two years ago — describing that she was felt incapacitated, saying she declined to participate in some of the sexual activity and that the incidents at Chi Phi fraternity house “felt like coercion,” according to a copy of the police report obtained by ABC News.
The developments in the case, which sparked a furor, come in the wake of the alleged victim in the case filing a lawsuit claiming she was gang raped and the local district attorney saying he would reopen the case.
In the Nov. 15, 2024, statement, she appeared to suggest some of the activity was consensual but detailed multiple instances where she declined to participate in certain sexual acts suggested by the men.
The woman’s statement was central to a decision by the Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten not to bring charges in 2024 and he said that the allegations in the civil suit are “dramatically different” than those in the statement.
In an interview with ABC News this week, Van Houten described the allegations as “morally disturbing” but argued Jane Doe’s 2024 account of the incident suggested that she consented to the sexual activity.
He said that she did not withdraw her consent, and that when she raised concerns, the fraternity members “stopped and did not pursue what they were doing.”
According to her 2024 statement, Jane Doe did say that shat one point she said “no to the foursome” one of the fraternity brothers proposed, she said in her statement. At another point she recalled “a group of multiple men” walking into a room and “I was instantly horrified, and I remember squealing out loud and running across the room and hiding under the covers on another bed,” the statement said. “I was horrified because I was really embarrassed that these individuals had seen me completely naked.”
Jane Doe used the word “rape” to explain why she took an additional hit of ketamine.
“I had become extremely uncomfortable with how this night was turning out so my thought was, if I do Ketamine again maybe I will pass out. My thought was that if I passed out and these men had sex with me, then they could be charged with Rape,” the statement said.
The men persisted, according to her statement.
During the final threesome, Jane Doe said, “I remember being totally disgusted at the situation, and I felt very tired and intoxicated. I would say that my level of overall intoxication was about a 8 out of 10 level of intoxicated. I would say that it was the most intoxicated I’ve ever been in my life. I felt like I was unable to make any decision because of how intoxicated I was,” the statement said.
“To me, that felt like coercion,” she wrote in the statement. “Also I felt like due to my intoxication, they should have known how intoxicated I was based on how I was slurring my words.”
She recalled being so “extremely tired” she simply uttered, “Sure” when a group of men asked to snort ketamine off of her body, according to her statement. “[The] group of men all started pouring various things all over my body. I couldn’t tell what they were pouring on me, as I had my face covered with my hands.”
Jane Doe said she slept until 10 a.m. and was driven home by the same Chi Phi member who had originally invited her to the house and who she said had participated in the sexual acts.
By the time she woke up that Sunday afternoon, “I was made aware that what had happened to me at Chi Phi was becoming public knowledge,” she wrote in the statement. “It was made clear to me by several friends that the members of Chi Phi were bragging about having an ‘eightsome’ with me. Some rumors said it was ten people, but nonetheless, it was now obvious that everyone knew it was me that this had happened to.”
In the civil lawsuit, filed earlier this month, the woman alleged that she was drugged, assaulted and gang raped by seven former and current members of the Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell. The lawsuit has drawn outrage and calls for an outside investigation into the matter.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday called for an outside investigation into Cornell University’s campus culture and its response to allegations by the student. Cornell’s Chi Phi chapter was barred from campus after the alleged Oct. 19, 2024, incident, though none of the individuals allegedly involved faced criminal charges, according to the DA.
Cornell University has said the former student’s allegations were investigated by the university’s Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards under the school’s Title IX policies.
On its website, the university said the investigation was conducted over several months and included hearings before a panel of trained faculty and staff.
“At its conclusion, the hearing panel issued a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions from Cornell,” the university said.
Cornell said it took the reports “very seriously” and conducted a thorough investigation but said: “At the same time, responding to an incident of this seriousness cannot end when an investigation is completed or sanctions are imposed. We have an obligation to ask what more we can learn, what we can do better, and how we can reduce the likelihood that anything like this happens again.”
Attorneys for multiple fraternity brothers named as defendants in the civil lawsuit have denied the allegations in the complaint.
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