Cornell Rape Case Reopens for Grand Jury Review as Campus Survey Finds 35% of Women Report Assault

A Tompkins County grand jury will decide whether criminal charges are warranted in the 2024 Cornell University gang rape allegations, after the alleged victim's civil lawsuit reopened a case prosecutors had already closed.

District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced the decision after a former Cornell student, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, filed a 101-page civil complaint on September 16 against Cornell, the Chi Phi fraternity, and seven named fraternity members, according to CNN. The lawsuit also names several sororities.

The 2024 Investigation and New Allegations

Van Houten's office investigated the alleged October 19, 2024 incident at the Chi Phi house and declined to bring charges in November 2024. He told CNN that decision "was legally correct" based on the evidence available at the time.

The civil complaint contains allegations that differ from Doe's original statement to police, according to Van Houten. A grand jury will now weigh her testimony alongside any new evidence from the complaint.

The Ithaca Police Department said in a statement, reported by CNN, that it was "disturbed" to learn of the 2024 allegations and noted it only found out through media coverage, since the incident was never formally reported to that agency.

The Accusations and the Defense

The complaint alleges the seven fraternity members drugged and assaulted Doe, then invited others into a group chat to join in, according to CNN, which reviewed a Snapchat message included in the filing. None of the men have been criminally charged.

The fraternity has pushed back hard. Chi Phi released text messages it says show Doe willingly participated in sexual activity with the men, according to Breitbart. Sunny Hostin, co-host of ABC's "The View" and a former prosecutor, argued on-air that the press is covering the story "inaccurately" and "unfairly," saying no reasonable prosecutor would have filed charges based on the texts.

Hostin pointed to New York law, noting that voluntary intoxication that merely impairs judgment does not legally equal an inability to consent. She said Doe's own account described agreeing to two separate group sexual encounters. Hostin's position reflects one read of the 2024 evidentiary record. It does not resolve whether the later civil complaint changes that calculus for the grand jury.

The complaint also alleges the seven accused students were given temporary suspensions and the chance to "mitigate their conduct by submitting essays," a characterization Cornell has denied, according to CNN. The fraternity's interim executive director, Trey Robb, said in a statement that the accused members were removed from the organization, and the Cornell chapter remains barred from campus, a sanction that has been in place since the 2024 allegations surfaced.

The case has drawn celebrity attention. Actress Mariska Hargitay, actor Josh Gad, and others have publicly called for accountability against what social media has dubbed the "Cornell 7," with some posting the accused students' photos before any charges were filed, according to Breitbart.

Cornell's Campus Assault Survey

Cornell's 2025 Survey of Sexual Assault and Related Misconduct found 35% of undergraduate women and 8% of undergraduate men reported experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact involving force or incapacitation since arriving on campus, according to Delta Daily News and Hometown Stations. That is up sharply from 11% of the overall student body in 2023.

The jump coincides with a drop in survey participation, from roughly a third of invited students in 2023 to just 15% in the 2025 round, according to Hometown Stations. Laura Palumbo of the National Sexual Violence Resource Center said that decline "raises questions about whether students believe sharing their experiences will lead to change," rather than necessarily indicating the lower response pool is representative.

A Cornell task force report found alcohol was present in 62% of reported incidents on the perpetrator's side and 55% on the victim's side, with half of respondents reporting they were conscious but incapacitated during all or part of the incident. Reported assault rates were nearly double among Greek-affiliated women (52%) compared with non-Greek women (29%).

Jennifer Simmons Kaleba of RAINN told ABC News the true campus assault rate is "probably much higher" than survey figures suggest, citing chronic underreporting nationally. That is RAINN's estimate, not a measured figure from Cornell's own data.

The Title IX Backdrop

Separate from the criminal case, Cornell ran its own Title IX investigation into the 2024 incident, holding at least 12 hearings before a faculty and staff panel by May 2025, according to NPR. Cornell said the process resulted in expulsions and suspensions, and that the Chi Phi chapter remains barred from campus.

Beth Gellman-Beer, a former Education Department civil rights official, told NPR that Title IX uses a lower burden of proof than criminal court and exists to decide whether an accused student should remain on campus, not whether they go to jail. Title IX rules have shifted repeatedly in recent years: the 2020 Trump administration rules raised the evidentiary standard and required live cross-examination hearings, while the Biden administration sought to expand protections for LGBTQ students and drop the hearing requirement.

The grand jury's review is now the central open question. Van Houten has not said when the panel will convene or whether new evidence beyond the civil complaint has been presented. Doe's civil suit against Cornell, the fraternity, and the named sororities proceeds separately and does not depend on the criminal outcome.