The lawyer representing a former Cornell University student who said she was gang raped for hours in 2024 after being pressured to take ketamine has decried the initial investigation and accused law enforcement and the school of failing his client.
“She was a young woman who went to Cornell with high hopes, she thought this was her dream come true, but it didn’t happen,” Thomas P. Giuffra told NBC News on Monday. “Now she’s not in college anymore. She’s not pursuing her goals and she’s just trying to hang on.”
In a written statement Monday, the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, said she hopes to “recover from this trauma but it is extremely difficult. It affects every aspect of my life. It will haunt me and be a part of me for the rest of my life.”
In a civil lawsuit filed this month, Doe alleges that Chi Phi fraternity brothers sexually assaulted her and that one of them sent a message encouraging other members to participate in the attack.
The fraternity chapter was later banned from campus, but no one was criminally charged. According to the lawsuit, some students were able to “mitigate their conduct” by writing college essays.
“Any suggestion that the university did not impose meaningful sanctions on those involved is false,” Kyle Kimball, Cornell’s vice president for university relations, said in a statement.
Giuffra told NBC News that in the days following the alleged assault, his client was “traumatized, numb and unable to function or accept the horror of what had happened.” She was in “self-preservation mode,” he said, and trusted that university officials would thoroughly investigate her claims.
“She wanted to give Cornell the opportunity to remedy the situation, because that was her expectation. So she didn’t want to take legal action,” he said.
She filed a civil suit, which names the Chi Phi chapter, Chi Phi National and Cornell University among others, this month.
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Why a 2024 Cornell sexual assault case was reopened
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Tompkins County Prosecutor Matthew Van Houten said that prompted him to reopen the case and consider whether to bring charges related to the allegations in 2024. The university said Monday it supports Van Houten’s decision to have the case heard before a criminal grand jury.
“Now that this lawsuit has been filed, it raises the question of whether Jane Doe believes there is additional evidence,” Van Houten told NBC News on Monday. “We want to talk to her. We want to clarify with her what this additional evidence is.”
He promised to “zealously” pursue any new evidence.
“We understand that in human beings, especially in dealing with trauma, sometimes it takes time to fully grasp, understand and process something that happened to you, and so we recognize that even though it’s been two years and we haven’t heard from her or her attorneys since then, it’s never too late to reopen and pursue justice when there is additional evidence,” Van Houten said.
He said he looked forward to working with the woman before the case goes to a grand jury. “We want to prepare with her, so she’s comfortable and confident that we’re going to cover all the bases with her and support her,” Van Houten said.
According to Giuffra, her client went to the Cornell University Police Department after the alleged attack, but did not speak to anyone other than the first person who took her report. University officials failed to act on key pieces of evidence, including the group conversation, Giuffra said.
“The available evidence was there. They could have used it,” he told NBC News. “What they should have done is investigated the participants in this group chat, interviewed witnesses and gathered evidence. That’s what investigators do, and it wasn’t done at all.”
Ithaca police did not immediately respond to a request for information about their involvement in the case. The Ithaca Police Department is actively investigating the allegations, according to the civil lawsuit. Cornell police referred NBC News to previous statements from the university defending its handling of the allegations.
Cornell pushed back on the suggestion that those involved in the incident faced few consequences at the time, saying in a statement Monday that the university’s Title IX proceedings resulted in a series of sanctions, including expulsions and suspensions.
The lawsuit names seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity. Scott Kretzschmar is one of them. A lawyer for Kretzschmar strongly denied the accusations and said his client welcomed the new investigation.
“The lawsuit against Scott Kretzachmar is not only intentionally dishonest but morally repugnant,” attorney Jeremy Saland said in a statement. “While Scott responded and made an immature comment on Snapchat, he did nothing else. Nothing.”
NBC News attempted to contact the other six people named in the lawsuit, but could not immediately reach them or receive a response.
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