Overview
- The plaintiff says the alleged incident occurred on October 19, 2024, at the Chi Phi fraternity house at Cornell and that she was pressured to inhale what she was told was ketamine and then sexually assaulted by multiple students over several hours.
- A civil complaint filed in mid-September 2026 lays out those allegations in greater detail and includes a screenshot from a Chi Phi Snapchat group message that lawyers say invited others to the scene.
- Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said his office declined to charge the case in 2024 because the plaintiff’s initial sworn statement did not describe being drugged or a group rape, and he now plans to present the new material to a grand jury.
- Cornell says it conducted Title IX and disciplinary investigations, closed the Xi chapter of Chi Phi, issued expulsions and suspensions, supports the DA’s decision to seek grand jury review, and rejects claims that punishments were limited to essays.
- The grand jury review could lead to criminal indictments and the case highlights tensions between campus discipline and criminal standards, how trauma can change reporting over time, and growing public scrutiny of fraternities and university handling of sexual‑assault allegations.