The student said she decided to go to police after seeing screenshots of a Chi Phi group message on Snapchat and because she “felt like it was the right thing to do if we could help this girl.” Doe’s lawsuit included a screenshot of a Chi Phi group message on Snapchat that said there was “free d—” in a room of the fraternity house where Doe was the night she alleges she was assaulted. “That’s when I internally made the decision. Okay, I’m taking all of this in and tomorrow I’m going to go to the police,” the student said. He recalled sitting with one or two officers for about half an hour during his police interview. “They seemed pretty competent. It seemed like a normal interview process to me,” he said. He said he explained everything he knew, including that fraternity members were sending messages about the events of that night with Doe and about possible witnesses. She also gave police secondhand information about drug use at Chi Phi and said she is familiar with the fraternity house and believed she knew where the ketamine was allegedly kept. “I guess I assumed it wasn’t enough,” the student said. Cornell did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday about the student’s account to police. In a video statement Saturday, President Michael I. Kotlikoff called the allegations “deeply disturbing” and said they raise questions about the investigations that were conducted. He said he welcomes an independent review of how the university handled the matter, which will be conducted by an outside law firm. Police records obtained by NBC News showed that Cornell police spoke with multiple witnesses and received anonymous tips about allegations of a gang rape at the fraternity house, but that the information was not forwarded to the local prosecutor for review when deciding whether to file charges. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten told NBC News on Friday that the flagged interviews “were each of the fraternity members declining to speak on the advice of their attorney.” He did not respond to a follow-up request asking if he had been informed of interviews with other fraternity members in addition to advice from callers. Van Houten ultimately determined that the allegations did not warrant charges due to lack of criminality. Doe’s lawsuit has sparked uproar and criticism over Cornell’s and Van Houten’s handling of her allegations. Van Houten has since agreed to reopen his investigation into Doe’s allegations, but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last week named state Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the matter. The student who spoke to campus police criticized how the department handled the matter. While students believed there was an active investigation into Doe’s claims, people continued to go to Chi Phi, including the room at the center of the allegations. Within Greek life at Cornell, “rumors spread quickly,” the student said, and even if you didn’t know Doe or the men, “you knew someone who did.” Doe’s lawsuit names Cornell, Chi Phi and the fraternity’s seven brothers among the defendants. None of the seven have been criminally charged. The fraternity was suspended from campus and remains banned. Cornell said in a statement on Sept. 28 that it conducted a thorough, months-long Title IX investigation that imposed “a series of sanctions, including expulsions and suspensions” from the university. According to a source who saw the written decision of the Title IX investigation, two of the fraternity members were expelled and two others were suspected. A third, who had already graduated, was banned from campus, and the final two were issued no-contact orders and “reflection papers.” Lawyers for two of the seven men denied to NBC News that they sexually assaulted Doe. An attorney for a third man denied the allegations to ABC News. NBC News has not received responses to requests for comment from the other five men. The national Chi Phi fraternity condemned sexual assault and drug and alcohol abuse in a statement Wednesday. It said that fraternity members named by Doe were expelled from the organization and that the chapter was permanently expelled by the national fraternity. “At all levels of Chi Phi, we will take actions like these whenever necessary to protect the integrity of our fraternity and the safety of our communities,” said Trey Robb, interim executive director of the national fraternity. Some of the men faced backlash when the conversations spread on campus. Two of the Chi Phi brothers named in the lawsuit were kicked out of their rugby club after the allegations came to light, a former teammate told NBC News. “We kick [them] off the team immediately before the school expelled them,” said the teammate, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. The teammate said he has been involved in discussions among a group of current and former rugby players about how to publicly respond to Doe’s lawsuit. “As a team, it was important for us to support this victim,” he said. “We are extremely, extremely shocked.” Cornell Rugby said in a statement that it was “deeply disturbed” by the allegations and that its thoughts were with Doe. “The players who were known to be related to the alleged events were permanently removed from the team and alumni network as soon as their affiliation with the incident was established,” it said. No current team members have been affiliated with Chi Phi, the statement said. As news of the allegations spread, some discussions supported Doe, but others shamed her in conversations, a former member of Doe’s sorority, Delta Delta Delta, told NBC News. “I sympathized with Jane. Doe, but also, people didn’t know the details,” said the former member, who graduated and requested anonymity for privacy reasons. Another student and former member of Tri Delta told NBC News that she remembered learning about the incident through rumors and described the student body as “really angry about it.” that time.” A third former Tri Delta member told NBC News that the campus learned of the incident through the university’s alert and described students as feeling “shocked” and “really dismayed.” She is also critical of the way Cornell handled the matter. “I think that shows a lack of respect for its students and in some ways makes it less attractive to attend the university,” she said. Today, within the sorority there is a resounding groundswell of support for Doe, she said, as well as “frustration and anger.” Tri Delta said in a statement on behalf of its national organization and its Cornell chapter: “As an organization, we are committed to supporting women and victims of sexual violence.” If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. rape crisis. You can also access RAINN’s online chat service at https://www.rainn.org/get-help.
