By Jessie Yeung, Isa Mudannayake, CNN
(CNN) — Since the former Cornell University student identified as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit last month alleging she had been drugged and gang raped at a fraternity house in 2024, the national storm of attention and media coverage has unveiled previously undisclosed evidence about what she says happened that night and in the following weeks.
The university’s president released a video statement Saturday amid calls for accountability. Doe’s alleged experiences raise “heartbreaking and troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanization, and aspects of party culture, alcohol, and drug use,” he said, promising further review and answers for the community.
“What we have learned about the handling of this case is horrifying. No young person who comes forward seeking help should ever be ignored or dismissed,” said state Gov. Kathy Hochul in a letter obtained by CNN that was read aloud Sunday at a student-led rally in Ithaca, where Cornell is located. “And no one should be left wondering whether the people entrusted with protecting them will be there when they need them most.”
As Cornell comes under fire over its approach to the investigation, the New York Times obtained documents, including records from the university’s formal Title IX investigation, which were corroborated by Doe’s attorney and raise serious questions about the initial criminal investigation in which no charges were brought against the alleged perpetrators.
Records obtained by the Times show the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office declined to review some of the materials collected by campus police investigators after deciding not to bring charges. CNN has requested a copy of the records.
Details of the process have fueled public outrage, with renewed discussion about sexual assault on college campuses and how educational institutions respond in such cases – as New York’s governor has ordered a new investigation by the state attorney general.
Here is the latest:
What did the country district attorney have access to?
Much of the scrutiny has centered on how Cornell and the Tompkins County DA handled the initial investigation, after Doe went to campus police to report the alleged rape in 2024, weeks after the incident.
At the time, campus police held an hours long interview with Doe, which was “condensed” from an approximately 120-page transcript into a six-page statement, which she signed, according to the Times, citing documents it obtained.
The Tompkins County DA’s Office in November 2024 declined to review any additional evidence beyond the six-page statement signed by Doe, including more interviews gathered by the campus police department, records obtained by the Times show.
Prosecutors did not express interest in the additional evidence because they had decided, based on Doe’s statement, that “Criminal charges would not be pursued in this case,” a Cornell police investigator wrote in a note documenting the call, according to the Times.
When Doe first went to campus police, authorities wrote she reported “she was recently raped by 8-10 men at the Chi Phi fraternity house,” according to documents reviewed by ABC News. The phrase does not appear in the six-page statement sent to prosecutors.
The statement prosecutors reviewed did not include a separate, extensive transcript of her interview with campus police in which she said, “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped,” according to CNN affiliate WCBS, which obtained the document.
After leaving her own handwritten corrections, Doe signed off on the six-page statement, which was then sent to the DA’s office, according to the Times.
“Multiple prosecutors and criminal investigators reviewed Jane Doe’s statement and correctly determined the alleged facts as set forth in the statement do not constitute a crime,” the DA’s office wrote in a news release.
Cornell also held its own formal Title IX investigation, which included more than 50 interviews, including with all of the men accused of wrongdoing, except one who declined to be interviewed, according to a heavily redacted 99-page document summarizing the panel’s findings.
CNN has not seen the Title IX filings, which are generally confidential and restricted to the parties involved.
This enormous amount of information was never seen by the DA’s office, it claims. All it received, Tompkins County DA Matthew Van Houten has repeatedly told CNN, was the six-page statement and Snapchat messages exchanged by fraternity members during the alleged assault – but a decision was made not to bring charges.
A Cornell spokesperson told CNN last week it had “shared all investigatory information” with the DA’s office, which matches Cornell’s initial public statement. The school later changed its statement, now saying police investigated the allegations in 2024 and “shared the victim’s sworn statement and the Snapchat screenshot” with the DA’s office.
“I don’t credit much about what D. A. Van Houten did during the course of this investigation,” Doe’s attorney, Thomas P. Giuffra, told CNN Sunday. “I think D. A. Van Houten had an agenda. I think that agenda was to protect Cornell University.”
When reached for comment, Van Houten said, “He is absolutely wrong.”
The district attorney’s investigation has drawn criticism for relying on the report from campus police to determine whether to pursue charges.
“I can’t imagine having an initial interview with a survivor like this without having somebody there with that specialized training who understands how memory works, how somebody processes trauma, how that affects the narrative that they tell. That fact that, at least according to her attorney, that didn’t happen is really appalling,” Berit Berger, a former federal prosecutor, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week.
“You have to do a thorough investigation here to see: Did she consent to every act with every individual that’s alleged to have assaulted her?” Berger said. “The fact that they didn’t go through this really comprehensive investigation to figure out, was consent given at each stage is really a tragedy for the survivor.”
Doe went to Cornell Health a few days after the alleged rape to be treated for a urinary tract infection (UTI) and to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases, where she told the healthcare provider she had contracted the UTI in a “traumatic way,” according to her attorney.
In response, Giuffra said, the medical professional advised Doe to “speak with somebody,” failing to offer her a rape kit or physical exam to document her injuries.
“Critically, two days after the assault, a rape kit would likely have revealed DNA which would have been significant information for a criminal investigation,” Giuffra wrote in a statement.
“By the time she went for the rape kit on 11/7 all of the DNA evidence was gone.”
‘I feel like bait’: How Doe processed the events
In the roughly three weeks between when the former student was allegedly gang-raped to her describing the night to campus police, Doe appeared to wrestle with shame as her own understanding evolved on whether an assault took place, according to records obtained by the Times and corroborated by Giuffra.
Giuffra also believes his client did not consent to any of the sexual encounters at the center of her allegations and was initially “in denial” about what transpired before starting to feel ashamed and finally realizing she had been raped, he told CNN.
“I felt like bait. I felt like lions around me. It was just a totally debilitating place to be in,” Doe told university investigators months after her alleged assault at the Chi Phi fraternity, according to a Cornell disciplinary hearing panel’s partially redacted decision obtained by CNN.
On the day she returned home, she reportedly told her two roommates she had consumed ketamine and had sex with multiple men but according to one of the roommates, did not yet use the words “rape” or “assault.” She appeared to be in shock and not “really understanding the gravity of what she was saying,” one roommate told investigators.
The next day, Doe also spoke to her sorority big sister – an older member who acts as a mentor – who said Doe had “not yet processed what had happened.”
In the following days, Doe communicated with at least two of the men she later accused of sexual assault, one of whom apologized “for how things went down.” Doe replied to the man reassuringly, the Times reported, saying “non (sic) of the sexual stuff was illegal.”
Rumors began spreading on campus, leaving her feeling humiliated and fearful. On an online forum, she saw comments about Chi Phi brothers drugging and gang raping a sophomore, which was the “first time I had ever heard the narrative change that I wasn’t a whore and that I was assaulted,” Doe said to investigators, according to documents obtained by the Times.
By November 3, Doe texted one of the men, explicitly saying 90% of what happened was not consensual. Several days later, she went to an emergency room and requested a rape kit, the Times reported, citing the documents. Then, she went to Cornell police.
“Ms. Doe’s internal processing went from denial to shame and ultimately acceptance that she had been raped by people that she thought were her friends,” Giuffra told CNN Thursday. “Her reactions were a textbook reaction to trauma.”
Trauma impedes the brain’s ability to record events that occur, which can lead to memory gaps, Sandi Johnson, senior legislative policy counsel with anti-sexual assault organization RAINN, told CNN.
While CNN has been unable to view the entire document summarizing the panel’s findings, it describes the heavy presence of ketamine at the fraternity house on the night of the alleged assault, as well as Doe’s reported state of mind at certain points.
In interviews with university investigators, Doe recounted the effects of ketamine as “vague consciousness,” according to the panel’s decision.
“You look like an operating human being … You don’t look dead or asleep necessarily. So, lights are on, but nobody’s home. Your brain is not functioning at its proper level,” she said.
Doe’s communications with fraternity members after the alleged assault
Three weeks after the alleged incident, Doe asked the fraternity member who invited her to the house that night, “Do you remember how any of these guys walked in?” her phone recordings reviewed by ABC News indicate.
Doe started recording her phone calls after the alleged assault so she could have a “reference to the limited information she was receiving,” as she sought to process what happened, Giuffra said.
The fraternity member made no mention of his group chat invitation, ABC News reported, citing the recording, instead explaining to Doe: “The door was just unlocked. … The party was sort of like crowded. … There was nowhere else to go.”
“If I wanted to take this somewhere, what y’all did would be classified as gang rape,” Doe told him, ABC News reported, noting Doe’s recorded phone calls to at least three of the fraternity brothers were later turned over to university investigators.
The Cornell disciplinary panel’s decision reviewed by CNN also cites a recorded phone call Doe had with one of the men named in the lawsuit in early November 2024, where they discussed ketamine and other substances they took as the initial sexual activity began that night in October.
One of the men Doe has accused of sexual assault reportedly sent her this text message: “I just wanted to apologize for how things went down the other night,” according to records obtained by the Times and corroborated by Doe’s attorney. The sender said he and another male allegedly involved felt terrible and too under the influence of drugs and alcohol to “shut it down and kick people out before it got way out of hand.”
What the men accused have said
The men named in the lawsuit have denied any wrongdoing.
The Times said four of the Chi Phi fraternity members acknowledged having sexual contact with Doe but said their interactions had been consensual. The others said they did not have sexual contact with Doe.
CNN has interviewed one attorney, has a statement from another and ABC News reported on a statement from a third. All have denied the allegations. CNN is working to see if the other four accused have legal representation.
According to the Times, citing the documents, the majority of the men said they did not think the woman appeared intoxicated and all six men interviewed denied wrongdoing. One said he was “a victim of sexual misconduct” because the woman had given him oral sex when he was “too incapacitated” to consent, the Times reported, citing the documents.
The men’s accounts differed, contradicted each other, and were contrary to the statements given by the woman to Cornell police in 2024, according to the documents reviewed by the Times.
The panel decision document obtained by CNN echoes some of the reporting on the men’s accounts, including that at least one said he could not tell the victim was under the influence.
One of the men said he and another went to the room after seeing the “free p*ssy” message sent in a Snapchat group chat titled “Chi Phi Actives,” to see if everything was OK, telling investigators, “I was kind of befuddled” after reading the text, according to the panel’s findings. He said he conversed with Doe and asked one of the men and Doe if they were “all right,” to which both responded affirmatively.
One of the men accused, whose name was redacted, told the panel, “I was sorry that maybe if it wasn’t consensual and she was victimized, I was sorry for not stopping it. And that I’m sorry I couldn’t tell if she was under the influence (…) just sorry that I felt like if something actually bad happened, I didn’t stop it,” according to the decision document.
University president promises answers, greater transparency
While the university does not have “all the answers” to questions surrounding the initial investigation, Cornell’s president Michael Kotlikoff – who was the university’s interim president at the time of the incident – said in his statement it is committed to investigating and finding them.
Cornell’s board of trustees will announce an independent review into the handling of the 2024 case by an outside law firm, he said, adding, “we owe it to Jane Doe and to survivors of assault to get this right.”
The criminal investigation has been turned over to the New York Attorney General by the state’s governor, a move Kotlikoff said the university supported. Cornell also previously told CNN it supported the decision.
Kotlikoff also backed legislative efforts to change New York’s sexual assault law, which can make it nearly impossible for survivors to seek justice if they voluntarily consumed alcohol or drugs before an assault.
In Doe’s September civil complaint, she stated prior to arriving at the fraternity house she was “visibly intoxicated, as she had consumed about 10 standard drinks within the past 3 hours.”
While the state criminal investigation and outside review are underway, the university will work to strengthen programs surrounding sexual assault prevention and education, mental health and substance use, Kotlikoff added.
The school’s own survey in 2025 showed 35% of undergraduate female students at Cornell reported experiences of nonconsensual sexual contact since entering the university.
Cornell students have expressed anger, distrust and disappointment at a perceived lack of transparency from the school following the alleged assault.
Addressing these frustrations, he said, “we will make a greater effort to explain what we can, to provide context about the actions Cornell has taken, and to be more transparent” within the confines of legal and policy limits.
Kotlikoff also signaled support for reviewing the role of Greek organizations in campus life. “We will reengage students, alumni, and other members of our community to examine how we preserve what is valuable about Greek life while strengthening individual accountability, transparency, and a culture in which every member understands their responsibility to protect the safety and well-being of others,” he said.
About one-third of Cornell’s undergraduate student body belongs to one of the more than 50 fraternities and sororities at the school.
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Chris Boyette, Jason Carroll, Danya Gainor, Taylor Galgano, Lauren Mascarenhas, Hanna Park, Gloria Pazmino, Brittany Shammas, Alex Stambaugh, Linh Tran, Jake Tapper, Avni Trivedi, Cindy Von Quednow, Jeff Winter and Holly Yan contributed to this report.
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