A criminal probe into an alleged gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity house has been reopened following community outcry, prosecutors said Monday. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said he intends to "seek justice" after a former student filed a civil complaint on September 16 alleging she was drugged and sexually assaulted by seven former and current members of Chi Phi fraternity at the Ivy League university in upstate New York. "I have been asked by the community to revisit the decision whether to pursue criminal charges against the seven fraternity members," Van Houten said in a statement obtained by Newsweek.
"I have already begun that process, starting with our conversation with Jane Doe and her attorneys. Once we determine the appropriate charges, the case will be prosecuted in the most objective and impartial means available—by testimony to the Tompkins County grand jury." A senior prosecutor will oversee the preparation of the case for a grand jury, including the alleged victim's testimony and any new evidence drawn from her civil complaint, Van Houten said. "Upon a vote by the grand jury to indict any or all of the individuals involved, this office will prosecute the charges zealously and to the fullest extent of the law," the prosecutor said.
Jeremy Saland, an attorney for one of the accused, responded to the allegations, telling Newsweek that the woman's claims are "intentionally dishonest" and morally repugnant. Cornell University backed the decision to reopen the criminal probe into the seven former fraternity members: Scott Kretzschmar, Scott Norris, Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes and Diego Sarabia. The school's Chi Phi chapter shuttered in 2024 and remains barred from campus.
"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," the school said in a statement. The alleged gang rape was reported to campus and Ithaca police roughly one week after the 20-year-old student said she met Ingalls at a frat house in October 2024, according to a 101-page lawsuit filed on September 16. After allegedly declining an offer of a threesome with two fraternity brothers, the student says Ingalls pressured her to snort ketamine while ingesting marijuana and high-proof rum, according to the lawsuit.
The student says Ingalls and Newell then engaged in sexual acts "without her consent," including oral and vaginal intercourse. According to court documents, the student says Lopes then replaced one frat brother who left the scene and alleges that Newell encouraged others to join via a Snapchat message. The attack, during which Chi Phi frat brothers are also accused of pouring lines of ketamine onto the woman's body, continued until she lost consciousness, her lawsuit claims.
Criminal charges were not filed in late 2024 because the woman did not allege she was drugged against her will or gang raped, Van Houten said. "On the contrary, Jane Doe's statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual," he said. "My office obviously did not and could not have based our November 2024 decision on the allegations in a civil lawsuit that would not be filed until nearly two years later." Van Houten said he contacted attorneys for the alleged victim after she filed the civil lawsuit to "understand the discrepancy" between her initial statement and accusations contained in her civil lawsuit.
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