More than seven months after the former Cornell University student known as Jane Doe reported being raped at the school’s Chi Phi fraternity house, she gave a university hearing panel a detailed account of the October 2024 incident, saying she was “raped and tormented.”
And she pleaded with the panel to “make Cornell a better and safer place” by removing from campus the men she alleged attacked her, according to school records reviewed by ABC News.
“I was prostituted, and I was held up like bait for a gaggle of men, and I didn’t even know it was happening,” Jane Doe testified via teleconference on May 29, 2025, regarding allegations that she had been raped by eight to 10 fraternity brothers.
Some of the men in the hearing maintained that the sexual encounter, which is now the subject of a criminal investigation, was consensual, but a friend of hers said that she felt that way initially because she was in “shock.”
The case has now rocked the university and started conversations about treatment of alleged sexual assault on college campuses across the country.
The Cornell Title IX investigation took place behind closed doors, and the results were not shared with prosecutors in Tompkins County, New York, who had declined to bring charges months earlier. Cornell Police did offer the results of their own investigation, but the local district attorney’s office declined to review them, according to police records reviewed by ABC News.
ABC News has reviewed transcripts of the 12-day hearing that shed light on the school’s lengthy investigation into the incident, as Jane Doe and the men she accused offered drastically different accounts of that evening. The seven men accused in the incident have denied all wrongdoing.
Jane Doe told the panel that she was barely “halfway through the process of understanding what happened” to her — but knew enough about the evening to ask the panel to take action against the fraternity members.
“I remember being coerced into using ketamine. I remember several respondents running a train on me, many different times. And I remember a dark room with shadows of men in and out constantly, and I remember feeling like there was a joke and I was not in on it,” said Jane Doe, who told police she was intoxicated that evening from a prior event, but alleges that she was pressured to drink and consume ketamine at the house.
The men she accused offered a different account of the evening, arguing that the incident was either consensual, or distancing themselves from the encounter.
“The truth is that [Jane] may have regrets about that night, as do I, but those regrets do not amount to sexual assault or sexual exploitation,” said one of the men.
Some of the men argued they only walked into the room without engaging in the drug use or sexual acts. One Chi Phi brother said, “I was in the room where it happened that night, but not when it happened.”
During her statement to the panel, Doe acknowledged the gaps in her memory — “I will never know everything that happened to me, and I know I’ve said that a lot,” she said — and sought to explain why some of her initial communications with the men after the incident appeared friendly.
“I’m open-minded, and thoughtful, and empathetic,” she said, according to the records. “But for two or three weeks following the event, those qualities protected the [men]. I didn’t want to believe something terrible could happen to me.”
One of Jane Doe’s friends told the panel that Jane Doe’s initial reaction that the incident may have been consensual was because “she was in a little bit of shock at the beginning,” according to school records reviewed by ABC News.
“I believe personally that she was such in shock that she was just trying to make everything okay and maybe kind of a people pleaser at that point,” the friend testified. “But I knew she was uncomfortable as soon as I saw her on that Monday and that she wasn’t okay with what happened and maybe embarrassed.”
Some of the fraternity brothers pushed back on Jane Doe’s assessment of the evening, arguing that she consented to the activity and only changed her account after rumors of the incident spread across Cornell’s campus.
“The complainant’s words and actions demonstrated affirmative consent to each action we engaged in,” one brother said. “What is highly possible here is that the complainant initiated this [investigation] … due to the public perception of the event and rumors that arose after the issuance of the crime alert.”
Some of the brothers who alleged they did not participate in the sex acts — but were briefly present in the room — argued they were being unfairly punished.
“It is clear [Jane Doe ] was upset and felt wronged, and some or even all of her frustration may be valid. But instead of being born from facts and truths, [Jane Doe’s] statements show both a desire and need to hold all members accountable, regardless of their specific actions,” said one brother.
At the end of the 12-day hearing, Jane Doe told the panel that the incident ultimately changed her view of Cornell, from what was once her dream school to the place where she was “raped and tormented,” according to the records.
“I ask the panel to please make it safer for those that I love and the community at large, and to remove those boys from the campus,” she said. “I will not be there to see the change, but removing these respondents will make Cornell a better and safer place.”
The panel issued their decision about the incident three months later, expelling two of the students allegedly involved in the incident and suspending two other students.
Jane Doe withdrew from Cornell due to the incident, according to her attorney, and has filed a civil suit in the case. None of the men named in the suit have responded in court, although each has denied wrongdoing to investigators, in public statements, or through their lawyers.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is conducting an investigation into the incident, and on Tuesday, Cornell’s board of trustees announced it had tapped the law firm King & Spalding to conduct an independent probe, led by former acting U.S. attorney general Sally Yates.
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