The woman, identified in court filings as Jane Doe, says multiple men drugged and raped her for more than four hours at the fraternity house in October 2024. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten laid out the renewed effort in a nine-page statement, saying his office will determine appropriate charges before presenting the case to a grand jury. He said he has assigned a senior prosecutor with experience handling sex crimes cases to lead the reexamination.
The lawsuit names seven Chi Phi members as defendants, though it isn't clear yet how many, if any, will face criminal charges as the investigation moves forward.
For Jane Doe, the lawsuit forced prosecutors back into a case that had apparently gone cold. For Cornell and its Greek system, the reopened investigation puts a fraternity house back under scrutiny more than a year after the alleged assault, with a grand jury now a real possibility instead of a closed file.