An alleged instance of sexual violence at a Cornell University fraternity house has made national headlines, sparking a conversation about violence against women on college campuses and eliciting responses from key public figures and celebrities. Florence Pugh, Mariska Hargitay and New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are among those who have spoken out about the allegations. On September 16, a woman, known as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit which alleged that she had been raped by multiple individuals, in an incident that involved alcohol and the drug ketamine.
Prosecutors confirmed on Monday that a criminal probe has been reopened. Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County District Attorney, has said that he intends to “seek justice.” In a statement obtained by Newsweek, Van Houten said, "I have been asked by the community to revisit the decision whether to pursue criminal charges against the seven fraternity members.” Cornell has backed the decision to reopen the criminal probe. The school said in a statement: "Cornell University supports the decision of the Tompkins County District Attorney (DA) to provide an opportunity for the victim’s story in the 2024 Chi Phi fraternity sexual assault case to be heard by a criminal grand jury.” Criminal charges had previously not been filed in late 2024 because the woman did not allege that she had been gang raped or drugged against her will, Van Houten said.
The Chi Phi chapter at Cornell closed in 2024 following the allegations and remains barred from campus. Several of the men named deny wrongdoing. A lawyer for one of the seven men named in the civil lawsuit said on behalf of his client in a statement to Newsweek on Monday that the claims are “intentionally dishonest” and “morally repugnant.” “We are confident an honest examination will exonerate him once again,” the attorney said of his client.
An attorney for another of the accused men said in a statement to Newsweek, "What is being said publicly now does not remotely tell the whole story. There are earlier statements, contemporaneous communications, witness testimony, and other evidence that matter. And in important respects, what is being alleged now is difficult to reconcile with what was said much closer in time to the events." The attorney added "A civil complaint is a set of allegations prepared by advocates.
It is not proof, and it is not a finding of fact." Meanwhile, an attorney for Jane Doe said in a statement to Newsweek, “The desperate protestations of innocence are expected. What else could he say?” Florence Pugh, the actress and star of East of Eden, was one of the first figures to speak publicly about the case. She said that she was feeling “uneasy and sick and anxious,” after reading about the case.
You need to be leading conversations about how we change the allowance and complicity of this behaviour as much as we are,” she wrote in a post on Instagram on Monday. Mariska Hargitay, the actress and star of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, shared a statement on Instagram in collaboration with her non-profit, the Joyful Heart Foundation: “A Cornell student says she was never told the outcome of her own Title IX case, and the men she accused are back on campus. The Cornell Daily Sun is demanding answers and accountability, and so are we.” “Survivors deserve to be believed and kept informed.
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