DA reopens probe into 7 Cornell frat bros who allegedly drugged, gang-raped student — and were given essay to ‘mitigate conduct’

Prosecutors in central New York are reopening an investigation into sickening allegations that seven Cornell University frat brothers horrifically drugged and gang-raped a former student.

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Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten told ABC News that his office is considering bringing criminal charges related to the case — after the nightmare described in a civil suit filed by the survivor sparked outrage online.

The Sept. 14 lawsuit alleged that the victim, identified only as Jane Doe, was coerced into taking drugs, assaulted, and raped by several men — Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar — at the Chi Phi fraternity house at Cornell in 2024.

That night, Newell allegedly invited other fraternity brothers to join in on the abuse, sending a Snapchat message about “free p—y” to a group “Chi Phi Actives,” after Doe was nearly incapacitated, a screenshot included in the lawsuit shows.

Van Houten, however, told the outlet that the allegations in the civil complaint are “dramatically different” than the woman’s statement after the alleged gang rape occurred.

“It’s our intention to present the case to the Tompkins County grand jury with Jane Doe’s cooperation,” Van Houten told the outlet.

“We want to reexamine whether there’s additional evidence that we were not aware of in November of 2024, that exists now that would change our assessment of the case and would result in the grand jury finding that there was criminal conduct.”

The district attorney added that he heavily relied on the Cornell University police’s investigation and revealed that his office did not “independently investigate” the alleged heinous incident. 

Van Houten also stated that a group chat in the complaint was never provided to his office, which Thomas P. Giuffra, an attorney for Jane Doe, said was a “critical piece of evidence” handed to authorities two years ago.

Giuffra also disputed Van Houten’s description of her statement and said authorities never followed up with her, specifically someone who had specialized training in sexual abuse.

“In my experience, speaking with an abuse survivor requires delicacy, understanding and specialized training. An average University Police officer would not have these skills. It would be the role of a specially trained detective or district attorney. However, Ms. Doe was never contacted by anybody with those skills,” he told the outlet.

“My client went to the Cornell University Police because a crime was committed. It was the obligation of the police to investigate the complaints. They were given the group chat inviting the members of the fraternity to rape my client,” he said. 

“This was a critical piece of evidence supporting that a crime had occurred. Despite this there was no follow-up with Ms. Doe either by the Cornell Police or the Tompkins County District Attorney.”

The shocking 101-page lawsuit, first reported by The Post on Sept. 18, details an alleged night of terror for the then 20-year-old student that began as an evening out with her sorority sisters and ended in an unspeakable hours-long sexual assault at the prestigious Ivy League college in Ithaca.

After a night of bar-hopping, the young woman, who no longer attends the top university, met up with one of the defendants, Ingalls, at a Tudor-style frat house mansion, her suit states.

When she declined his offer of a threesome with two frat bros, he allegedly pressured her to snort ketamine for the first time in her life, while also ingesting marijuana and a high-proof rum, court documents claim.

Ingalls and Newell then allegedly “began engaging in sexual acts with Plaintiff, all without her consent,” including both oral and vaginal intercourse, the filing states.

When one frat brother left, another, Lopes, entered to take his place, the lawsuit claims.

After the sickening Snapchat message at 1:42 a.m. in which Newell allegedly encouraged others to join the assault, frat members began pouring lines of ketamine all over the woman’s body and snorting them, court documents say.

One of them poured a line of the powder “onto his erect penis and commanded that Plaintiff snort it, which she did,” the suit alleges.

The lawsuit claims the assault continued until 5:45 that morning, after which Jane Doe lost consciousness.

The attack was reported to both campus and Ithaca police about a week later, and the fraternity and defendants Ingalls, Newell, Lee, Lopes, Sarabia, Norris and Kretzschmar were placed on temporary suspensions, the lawsuit said.

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The elite school later offered the accused frat boys a chance to “mitigate their conduct by submitting essays,” according to the deeply disturbing filing, which also names several Chi Phi fraternity organizations, several sorority organizations, the former president of Cornell’s Chi Phi chapter, a local bar, and other unnamed individuals.

In the weeks since the lawsuit was filed, several lawmakers, celebrities and social media users have blasted the Cornell administration and the district attorney’s office for the lack of consequences.

Cornell said it investigated the allegations at the time in line with its university policies, and that the Xi chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity remains banned from campus.

“We take sexual violence extremely seriously,” Cornell’s Vice President for University Relations Kyle Kimball said in a Sept. 21 statement. “The Presidential Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault was launched shortly after this incident and issued a report in March 2026.”

The found that 35% of undergraduate female students at Cornell said they experienced non-consensual sexual contact in 2025 — up from 23% in 2023.

The university said it was unable to comment further on Doe’s allegations due to federal privacy laws and will instead respond “in detail through the legal process.”

At a town hall with Cornell and Ithaca College students on Sunday, Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasted the university for protecting the “factory of sexual assault” she said plagues academia.

“I want to be clear that the culture of rape, sexual assault, and pedophilia is protected in elite institutions across the United States and including Cornell University in this instance,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“It has got to stop. This entire country is sick and tired of not just financially corrupt, morally corrupt leadership in every institution,” she told the crowd, opening up about instances where she was “horrified” by inappropriate sexual behavior she witnessed while an undergraduate at Boston University. 

“What I felt like I was in at that point was a factory of sexual assault. It was a sexual assault factory,” the congresswoman said.

“The fact that she had to lose her education, and those men were protected by an institution and granted an Ivy League degree as a reward? Never again,” she said of Doe’s case.

Actress Florence Pugh also released a statement stating she felt “uneasy and sick and anxious” after learning about the gang rape.

“Colleges/schools/universities repeatedly fail women around the world. You build men that get taught through time and time again that they can do extreme harm and that they won’t be harmed in return,” Pugh wrote in an Instagram post.

“There is no equality until you respect our bodies. There is no equality until you stop damaging our souls… We are the life force of this earth, start f**king protecting us. Be angry for us. Please.”

Van Houten, the Cornell University police department and did not immediately reply to The Post’s request for comment.

Kretzachmar’s lawyer slammed the lawsuit as “not only intentionally dishonest but morally repugnant,” and said he “welcomes any further investigation by the District Attorney who already determined not to bring charges” in a statement to The Post.

“While Scott made an immature comment on Snapchat, he did nothing else,” his attorney Jeremy Saland said. “For the few minutes he was in the room with the plaintiff, Scott did not see her in duress or undress, was involved in no sexual activity nor touched the plaintiff in any way and ingested no ketamine.”

“The DA reported that the plaintiff never said she was drugged without her knowledge, admitted to consuming alcohol and drugs voluntarily, and acknowledged she wasn’t forced to engage in any acts,” he continued. “Equally shocking, and knowingly withheld from these young men, the plaintiff did not assert she was helpless, unconscious, or incapacitated at any time in the fraternity house.

“The plaintiff can peddle any story she wants, but intentionally victimizing an innocent person for a money grab is reprehensible,” Saland added.

Attorney information for the other men named in the lawsuit wasn’t available by the time of publication.

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Additional reporting by Vaughn Golden.