Cornell gang rape investigation records reveal victim's account of being 'like bait'

Disciplinary records released this week from Cornell University paint a stark picture of what a woman says happened to her at a Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024. She told the university's investigators that she felt defenseless, describing herself as "bait" with men circling her like "lions." The documents, filed in court by a lawyer for one of the accused students, offer the most detailed account yet of how the university investigated allegations that seven men sexually assaulted her after she had been given ketamine.

The woman, identified in court filings as Jane Doe, went to campus police three weeks after the encounter and gave a detailed statement about what occurred. But the local district attorney declined to pursue criminal charges after reviewing a summary of her account. Only Cornell's Title IX investigation continued, tasked with determining what discipline the accused students should face. That investigation was extensive: 50 interviews with 32 witnesses, 12 days of hearings, and eventually a 99-page disciplinary report.

According to the university's findings, the woman had been invited to the fraternity house by a member she had long been interested in romantically and sexually. She initially consented to sexual contact with him and one of his friends, though she later alleged in her lawsuit that she had been pressured into consuming ketamine, marijuana, and alcohol and was too intoxicated to give meaningful consent. Then the situation escalated. At 1:42 a.m., one fraternity brother sent a message to a Snapchat group using vulgar language to advertise that a woman's body was freely available. Another person in the chat later asked if the "shop" was still open. More men began arriving in the room.

When investigators asked the woman to describe her state of mind during the assault, she offered a precise and haunting explanation of what ketamine had done to her. "You look like an operating human being," she said. "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 told them she remembered smoking marijuana and knew she had taken ketamine for the first time, but had no independent memory of consuming it. She said some of the men inhaled drugs off her unclothed body. "I felt like bait. I felt like lions around me. It just was a totally debilitating place to be in," she told the investigators.

One of the men she accused of snorting drugs off her body—but not of participating in other aspects of the assault—gave a sharply different account. He told investigators he was in the room for no more than five minutes and had gone there only to check on the woman's wellbeing. He said she was covered by bed coverings the entire time, that he never saw her naked, and that he did not use drugs. He claimed he sat on a couch, chatted briefly, and left after confirming that both the woman and another man in the room said they were fine. The disciplinary panel did not believe him. While it cleared him of sexual assault and exploitation charges, it found him responsible for attempted sexual exploitation, reasoning that his stated purpose for entering the room was not credible.

The same student who is now challenging his punishment in court had also posted in the Snapchat conversation, writing that what was happening in the room was not a joke and adding "Firsthand pov not a bit." When questioned by investigators, he said he did not remember sending the message. In her lawsuit, Jane Doe has accused two other men of performing sex acts on her without consent while she was partially incapacitated, another man of kissing her without consent, and two others of standing at the foot of the bed acting as voyeurs. She is suing all seven men and the university itself, seeking unspecified damages and holding them liable for rape.

Cornell has not publicly detailed the full results of its investigation, but confirmed that some students were expelled. The student challenging his punishment was permitted to remain at the university but was ordered to stay away from the woman, complete a class on sexual harassment and bystander intervention, and write a reflective paper on his conduct that includes a proposal for training other students on preventing sexual harassment. This week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul appointed Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor to lead a renewed criminal investigation, saying she had lost confidence in the local district attorney's handling of the case.