Sealed complaint and doxxing

Judge Phaedra F. Perry Bond has sealed the civil complaint Jane Doe filed against Cornell University, along with other documents in the case. The order addresses the public, the parties and their attorneys alike. It comes after a man who shares a name with one of the defendants, and who did not attend Cornell at all, was doxxed. In the order, the judge wrote:

“Everyone involved, be it the public, parties, or their attorneys, needs to do their part in bringing the temperature down before someone gets hurt.”

The allegations

The civil suit alleges that Jane Doe was given drugs and alcohol before being sexually assaulted by several members of Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity while incapacitated in October 2024. The complaint places the night of 19 October 2024 at the fraternity house on Edgemoor Lane, after a stop at the bar Moonies. It describes her agreeing to sex with one member after brief hesitation, and later ketamine being given and assaults and rapes following. Seven former members, now called the "Cornell 7" in the United States, are accused. The lawsuit was filed last month against the university and the accused students, and it accuses Cornell of failing to investigate and discipline those involved.

Police and prosecutors

Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County district attorney, decided not to pursue a criminal case a few days after Jane Doe gave her first substantial statements to police in October 2024. He asked campus police to inform her of the decision but admitted he never spoke with her or her lawyer. Last week he said in a statement that he was confident no further investigation was needed, after prosecutors reviewed a six-page police summary of her account. He described her participation in drug use and sexual activity as voluntary, conscious and consensual. That description runs counter to what she told police and university investigators, and to her civil complaint.

Prosecutors reopened the case after the civil suit was filed, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul appointed the state's attorney general as special prosecutor. Giuffra told the Associated Press that she was misled about the investigation's status:

“I think she was misled.”

Protests across the country

On 8 October, protests were held across the US calling for an end to sexual violence, with survivors, students and advocates rallying in communities and on campuses in more than 40 states. In Washington, hundreds gathered on the National Mall on Thursday evening and marched to the White House. The D.C. demonstration was one of dozens of rallies, vigils and walkouts that day, organized under the banner #StopSexualViolence: From the Frat House to the White House.

Threats and a false alarm

On Tuesday night, a police officer went to the home of her parents after a false report said a man had shot her mother and pointed a gun at her sister. The officer believed he faced an ongoing shooting and arrived with his weapon ready. He intercepted a car carrying her brother and boyfriend, while her father came out to ask what was happening, according to a police report. Police are investigating and the FBI is examining the case. Giuffra says officers pointed weapons at the boyfriend, the brother and the father, and that his client has received death threats. The family covered the house windows with paper. Giuffra said:

“If it had been a policeman with a trigger-happy finger, or someone had done something wrong, someone could have ended up dead.”

Wider debate on campus culture

The affair has prompted broad criticism of fraternities, which are central to undergraduate social life and whose alumni often become donors to universities. In the Netherlands, Willy van Berlo, a strategic policy adviser at the Rutgers knowledge centre, said the case reflects how some men and boys do not recognise or respect women's sexual boundaries. She pointed to a Snapchat group in which students read messages about the abuse and did not intervene:

“Several students in that Snapchat group read the messages about the abuse, but did not step in.”

CBS figures from 2024 show that 52% of women in university education experienced some form of sexual misconduct within a year, compared with 19% of men.

Women in university education52%

Men in university education19%

Women in university education

52 %

Men in university education

19 %

Data from the article text

Mischa Dekker, a gender violence researcher at Leiden University, said the outrage mainly concerns peer cultures in which men normalise sexual misconduct, and that Dutch research shows similar patterns in student life.