In the weeks after a Cornell University student reported being raped at a fraternity party, most of those she accused were questioned by university officials. Their answers, detailed in confidential investigative files obtained by The New York Times, have not been previously reported.
The woman, who left Cornell and filed a lawsuit against the university, the fraternity and seven of its members, and her sorority, said she was plied with drugs in October 2024 after heavy drinking and sexually assaulted multiple times at the Chi Phi fraternity house. But in interviews during Cornell’s administrative investigation, all of the men denied wrongdoing. Four acknowledged sexual contact but said it was consensual.
One man said he was “a victim of sexual misconduct” because the woman gave him oral sex when he was “too incapacitated” to consent. Their accounts frequently contradicted each other and ran counter to the woman’s statements to Cornell police. None of the men has been charged with a crime — the local district attorney, Matthew Van Houten of Tompkins County, declined to pursue a criminal case but has since said his office would reconsider.
The men described their recollections of the night. Matthew Ingalls asked if the woman wanted a threesome with him and Jonathan Newell, who later sent a Snapchat advertising “free pussy” in the bedroom, according to the lawsuit. Winston Lee said the woman seemed “perfectly normal,” not overly inebriated. Gillio Lopes said she initiated their contact and did not ask for consent.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing