Overview
- A former Cornell student filed a 101-page civil complaint on Sept. 14 that alleges she was drugged with a substance identified as ketamine and sexually assaulted for hours by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity at the Ithaca house in October 2024.
- Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced he has reopened the criminal review and intends to present the case to a grand jury with the plaintiff’s cooperation while the civil suit proceeds.
- Cornell says its Office of Civil Rights and Office of Student Conduct investigated the matter, the Xi chapter of Chi Phi remains barred from campus, and two students were expelled while other disciplinary outcomes are protected by federal privacy rules.
- The parties dispute key evidence and accounts: the DA says the civil complaint contains allegations that differ from the plaintiff’s earlier statement to police and that a Snapchat group chat was not previously provided, while the plaintiff’s lawyer says investigators were given the chat and failed to do a trauma-informed follow-up.
- The filing has prompted broad public outrage and high-profile commentary and could lead to criminal charges, renewed scrutiny of campus sexual-assault procedures, and calls for changes in how universities and prosecutors handle evidence and survivor interviews.