A former student filed a civil lawsuit against Cornell University and seven former members of the Chi Phi fraternity alleging she was drugged and gang-raped for multiple hours inside a campus fraternity house in October 2024

The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, claims two fraternity members pressured her to take ketamine while she was already intoxicated on October 20, 2024

The lawsuit states that a fraternity member posted a message in a group chat saying a woman was available upstairs, leading more men into the room where the assaults continued until early morning

The civil complaint accuses Cornell University and the former students of negligence, breach of contract, and state law violations, seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages

Following community pressure, the Tompkins County District Attorney’s office reopened the criminal inquiry, and NY Governor Kathy Hochul appointed Attorney

The Cornell University ‘fraternity rape case’ will be reopened after woman said she was raped for hours by multiple students. The gang rape allegedly happened at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024

A civil suit was filed against Cornell University and seven former frat brothers by a female student who alleges she was the victim of a drug-fueled gang rape in 2024.
A former student filed a civil lawsuit against Cornell University and seven former members of the Chi Phi fraternity alleging she was drugged and gang-raped for multiple hours inside a campus fraternity house in October 2024.
The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, claims two fraternity members pressured her to take ketamine while she was already intoxicated two years ago.
New details are emerging in the case of a former Cornell University student who claims she was drugged and gang-raped for multiple hours inside a fraternity house on October 20, 2024.

According to Jane Doe’s lawsuit, around 1:42 a.m. on Oct 20, 2024, one fraternity member sent a crude message to a Chi Phi Snapchat group chat. The message said a woman upstairs was available for sex, leading more men into the room where they assaulted her, continuing until early morning

In the lawsuit against the university and the then-fraternity members, the woman alleges the gang rape happened while she was already intoxicated.when she visited a friend at Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity house on October 19, 2024.
According to the claimant, two fraternity members pressured her into taking what they said was ketamine. She alleges that she was then sexually assaulted by multiple men.
According to the suit, on the night in question at around 1:42 a.m., one fraternity member sent a crude message to a Chi Phi Snapchat group chat. The message said a woman upstairs was available for sex, leading more men into the room where the assaults continued until early morning – the assaults continued until 5:45 a.m, the woman alleges.
The alleged female victim identified as Jane Doe, who was 20 at the time of the alleged assault, recently filed a civil lawsuit against seven then-Chi Phi fraternity members as well as Cornell university.
Doe in her lawsuit is claiming they failed to protect her and prevent the alleged assault.
Back in 2024, as rumors of the alleged assault spread around campus Jane Doe eventually filed a report with campus police.
The report spurred a university investigation of seven Chi Phi members that culminated with a 12-day internal federal civil rights proceeding known as Title IX in May 2025, at which more than 30 witnesses testified following 50 investigative interviews.
The investigation found that the night of the alleged assault, a photo of Jane Doe was shared among active Chi Phi members in a Snapchat group, the documents revealed. The nature of the photo is not made clear in the court documents.
Doe in her suit alleges the seven accused were issued temporary suspensions and allowed to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays, while no criminal charges were brought against the accused at the time. 
The civil complaint accuses Cornell University and the former students of negligence, breach of contract, and state law violations, seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
On September 28, 2026, now the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that it was reopening the criminal investigation amid pressure from the community, and NY Governor Kathy Hochul appointed Attorney.
The Tompkins County District Attorney has said the woman’s sworn statement from November 2024 was different from what she alleges in the civil lawsuit, while her attorney claims investigators never followed up on her allegations.
DA Matthew Van Houten during an interview on September 29, said he was never provided the full transcripts of those initial interviews Jane Doe conducted with Cornell police. 
He said the sworn statement submitted to his office in November 2024 made no mention of the statements that were made in the transcript, referencing the alleged victim telling school investigators, “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped.”
“I never saw it, never heard it until tonight,” Van Houten said.
“If it exists, I will get it. You can be sure of that.”
Reacting to this latest development, Scott Kretzchmar, 22, and Gillio Lopes, two of the then fraternity members identified in the lawsuit have responded, denying involvement in the crime.
Scott Kretzchmar, who allegedly sent two responses in the Snapchat group, through his attorney, Jeremy Saland, while acknowledging that the messages were inappropriate,maintains that the writings are not evidence of sexual assault: “This is a situation where there was an ugly Snapchat … ugly, period. … But that doesn’t make my client a rapist, and it certainly doesn’t make anyone a sex offender,” Saland said.
According Saland Kretzchmar briefly entered the room where the woman was, in response to the message “that many people have seen,” but he did not touch her “in any way, shape or form” and left in a matter of minutes”, adding “She was not incoherent but in fact was coherent and again left that room without touching her or having any physical interaction with her whatsoever.”
Furthermore, the university found Kretzchmar was not responsible for anything that the woman alleges in her complaint, the attorney points out>
Refuting accusations of ketamine use, a hair follicle test determined Kretzchmar had no ketamine in his system, Saland said.
“We certainly would present evidence of the hair follicle test which demonstrably and scientifically shows that he did not ingest ketamine as alleged by the complainant,” he said.
Saland said that while no one has contacted him about a renewed investigation, “we welcome the opportunity.”
“We are available to present exonerating evidence. I just hope the right thing is eventually done, this case is closed, and my client can live his life and not be subject to this selfish, repugnant, vile claim by this woman about him,” he added.
In a similar vein Gillio Lopes, through his attorney Andrew Miltenberg, “unequivocally denies the allegations against him.”
“Cornell previously investigated these allegations. The allegations now being made publicly differ from what was reported and investigated during that process,” Miltenberg said.
“These are serious accusations, but accusations are not proof. Mr. Lopes should be judged on the evidence, not prejudged based on allegations made in a lawsuit or repeated in the media. We will address these issues through the appropriate legal process.”