Woman told Cornell police 2 years ago she was 100% confident she was
raped, report says
[October 01, 2026]
By KIMBERLEE KRUESI
A woman who filed a lawsuit saying she was sexually assaulted by seven
men at a Cornell University fraternity house told police weeks after the
incident that she could “say with 100% confidence I was raped,”
according to a report by CBS New York, which said it obtained a
transcript of her interview with investigators.
The transcript, which has not been publicly released, raises new
questions surrounding the local district attorney's decision not to
prosecute anyone at the time.
In recent days, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has
maintained the woman's first account to police didn't include
allegations that she was drugged, incapacitated beyond the ability to
consent, or forced into sex. Yet, he also said he had reopened the
investigation based on new information in the woman's lawsuit, which was
filed this month.
Cornell has agreed to bring in outside lawyers to independently
investigate how the university handled the woman's allegations, New York
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday.
The woman initially went to Cornell's campus police about three weeks
after the alleged attack that began on Oct. 19, 2024, then went back on
Nov. 14 and 15, 2024, to be interviewed.
“Yes. It was coercion, yes,” she told a campus police officer, according
to the transcript obtained by CBS. According to CBS News, she said she
was “completely and totally incapacitated” before some of the sexual
abuse.
The woman acknowledged she had been drinking alcohol and used drugs the
night she visited the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024, and that
she had gaps in her memory.
She also told police she was comfortable with an initial sexual
encounter with two of the men, but not with what happened later, when
other men began to enter the room.
“And then, of course, I was being hit at the same time. Physically hit
very, very hard," she told police, according to the transcript. “I can
say with 100% confidence I was raped," it said she told investigators.
The woman, identified only by the pseudonym Jane Doe in the lawsuit,
filed a complaint Sept. 16 saying she was sexually assaulted at the Chi
Phi fraternity house after being pressured into snorting ketamine,
smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol. She became completely
incapacitated while fraternity members were sexually assaulting her, she
said.
Van Houten didn't immediately respond to emails and phone messages from
The Associated Press on Wednesday, but he told CBS News he never saw the
transcript of the woman's interview when his office declined to bring
charges, and relied instead on a statement written by a campus police
officer but signed by the accuser.
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The Chi Phi fraternity house at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.,
Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Ainsworth)
Van Houten has released a summary of that statement, with some of her
direct quotes included. He has defended his office’s decision not to do
additional investigation after the woman first came forward.
“There were no question marks. There was no additional need to find
information because we had all of the information that the police
collected from Jane Doe through her very detailed, very comprehensive
statement that she provided,” Van Houten told CNN earlier this week.
Cornell University first publicly disclosed that it was investigating
the woman's allegations on Nov. 8, 2024, the same day she first went to
police. The school sent students an email warning them that a person had
reported they had been sexually assaulted at a fraternity house and
coerced into consuming drugs. Cornell suspended the Chi Phi fraternity
the same day.
In another public statement to students in late November 2024, Cornell
University President Michael Kotlikoff said campus police were
investigating “deeply disturbing allegations of drug abuse and sexual
violence” at the fraternity house.
Later, Cornell appointed a task force designed to address sexual assault
on campus. But with the district attorney's decision not to pursue
charges and the university's internal disciplinary investigation
shielded from the public, attention on the matter waned.
Cornell said in a statement this week that it supported the decision to
reopen the criminal investigation, adding that its own investigation had
led to some students being disciplined or expelled. The Chi Phi chapter
remains barred from campus, but the university has declined to release
more information on discipline for individual students, citing privacy
rules.
Earlier this week, Hochul called for a new investigation into the
university's handling of the matter. In a post on social media
Wednesday, she said she had spoken with Kotlikoff and he “agreed to
bring in outside counsel for an independent investigation.” Cornell
confirmed it had agreed but declined additional comment.
“This culture has to stop. And in New York, we’re going to do everything
we can to stop it,” Hochul said.
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