A timeline of the Cornell gang rape allegations

By Hanna Park, Danya Gainor, Holly Yan, Gloria Pazmino, CNN

(CNN) — A lawsuit filed last month by a former Cornell University student alleging a gang rape at a fraternity house in 2024 has prompted the reopening of an investigation and reignited a firestorm around the scourge of sexual assaults at universities in the US and how schools, police and prosecutors respond.

In the weeks since the 101-page complaint was filed by a woman identified only as Jane Doe, Cornell University, its police department and the county district attorney have come under intense scrutiny that has cracked the tranquil façade of the Ivy League institution and the small upstate New York community that surrounds the campus.

The emergence of new evidence has raised questions about how the initial investigation was handled and what evidence was shared with Cornell police and the county district attorney – who says he only received Snapchat messages from that night and a six-page investigative report before deciding not to bring charges in the case.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has taken over the investigation as a special prosecutor. She was appointed after Gov. Kathy Hochul said she “lost faith” in the district attorney’s ability to oversee the inquiry.

Here’s a timeline of key events described in the lawsuit and investigation:

Far from home

August 2022

Doe arrived at Cornell – more than 1,000 miles from her home – as an 18-year-old freshman with the “similar hopes, expectations and trepidations of other high school graduates embarking on something so seemingly monumental,” says the civil complaint filed by Doe on September 16.

That fall, she pledged the Alpha Beta chapter of Delta Delta Delta, drawn, the suit says, to its “promises of sisterhood and lifelong friendships,” and the ready-made community it offered a student far from home. She would live in the sorority house on campus where, the complaint notes, the university billed Greek membership as a “vital” part of student life.

The night of October 19, 2024

Before 8:30 p.m.: Before heading to a Tri-Delta event at a bar in Ithaca, a now 20-year-old Doe drank vodka at her sorority house “until she was intoxicated,” the complaint said.

Around 8:30 p.m.: She took an Uber to the bar, accompanied by the sorority’s house mother.

Around 9 p.m.: The bar’s bouncer marked an “X” on each of her hands to signify she was under 21 but she was still served at least one drink inside, the suit says.

Around 10 p.m.: Doe and other sorority members walked to a nearby bar, where she was given an “under 21” wristband.

Around 11 p.m.: Doe left the second bar alone and walked to the Chi Phi fraternity house to see a friend, one of the men later named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

“When Plaintiff arrived at XI CHAPTER’s fraternity house, Plaintiff was visibly intoxicated as she had consumed about 10 standard drinks within the past 3 hours,” the complaint says.

Inside, the suit alleges, the friend gave Doe a beer and the two danced before he proposed a threesome and took her to another room in the house. There, the friend and another fraternity member allegedly pressured Doe into snorting a substance they described as ketamine and gave her more alcohol, the lawsuit says. Both fraternity members then sexually assaulted Doe while she says she was “incapable of consent,” according to the complaint, which noted one of the men slapped Doe on the buttocks, resulting in bruising.

In a six-page statement signed by Doe to Cornell police, Doe said she was “pretty ok” with aspects of the initial encounter that night, but she did not consent to other sexual activities later at the fraternity house.

“I felt like I was unable to make any decisions because of how intoxicated I was,” she said in the statement. Doe said she felt like her overall intoxication level at one point was about an “8 out of 10” — which she said was the most intoxicated she had been in her life.

Sometime after the initial encounter, a third fraternity member entered the room and began to sexually assault Doe, the complaint says, without her consent.

The early morning of October 20, 2024

Around 1:42 a.m.: One of the men allegedly posted in the fraternity’s “Chi Phi Actives” Snapchat group there was “free p*ssy” upstairs – a message the suit says was meant to encourage other members to join in. A photo of a portion of the chat is included in the filing.

In additional Snapchat messages obtained by CNN, Doe is shown in an image in a room at the fraternity house.

Multiple additional fraternity members then entered the room, where the complaint alleges they pressured Doe into taking more ketamine and subjected her to an hours-long assault.

“While Plaintiff was lying on her back on the bed, Defendants … then began pouring lines of Ketamine all over her body and snorting them,” alleges Doe in the complaint.

Soon after, the complaint says two of the alleged perpetrators moved Doe to another room where they instructed Doe to snort more Ketamine and ‘initiated another assault.”

Roughly 5:45 a.m.: The assault ended and Doe “lost consciousness,” the lawsuit says.

Later that morning: Doe awoke at the fraternity house and returned to her sorority house, the lawsuit says. Once home, she noticed bruising and took preemptive medication for a urinary tract infection, it says.

Doe’s roommates later told the university’s Title IX investigators that when she arrived home, Doe told them she had consumed ketamine and had sex with multiple men, according to files obtained by The New York Times.

One roommate told investigators Jane Doe did not use the word “rape” or “assault” yet, the Times reported.

One roommate said it appeared Doe was “in shock” and was “not really understanding the gravity of what she was saying,” the Times reported.

As the day went on, Doe became aware the alleged assault “was becoming public knowledge” on campus, the lawsuit says.

“It was clear to me by several friends that the members of Chi Phi were bragging about having an ‘eightsome’ with me,” she told university police in her statement to them.

“It was now obvious that everyone knew it was me that this had happened to.”

The weeks before the alleged assault was reported

Over the ensuing weeks, Doe, her roommates and her sorority big sister describe her realizing the severity of the night’s events and coming to understand them as an alleged assault, according to the Times report, citing the Title IX documents.

CNN has not seen the Title IX filings, which are generally confidential and restricted to the parties involved; however, it has obtained a heavily redacted, 99-page summary detailing key findings from the university panel’s disciplinary case against one of the men.

After the alleged rape, Doe saw comments on an online forum about Chi Phi brothers drugging and gang raping a sophomore, of which she later told investigators, “That’s the first time I had ever heard the narrative change that I wasn’t a whore and that I was assaulted,” the Times reported.

Once she came to terms with what happened, she went to a health professional a few days after the incident, Doe’s attorney told CNN.

“Ms. Doe’s internal processing went from denial to shame and ultimately acceptance that she had been raped by people that she thought were her friends,” her attorney, Thomas P. Giuffra, told CNN.

“Her reactions were a textbook reaction to trauma,” he said.

October 22: A few days after the incident, Doe went to Cornell Health to get treated for a urinary tract infection and to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases, her attorney said.

“Ms. Doe disclosed to the treating health care professional that she contracted the UTI in a ‘traumatic way,’” Giuffra said about the visit.

“Ms. Doe’s disclosure warranted further inquiry, including a rape kit, consultation of medical professionals trained to deal with rape cases and a physical exam to document her injuries,” her attorney said. “Inexplicably, all the medical professional did was to advise Ms. Doe to ‘speak with somebody.’”

Before going to campus police, Doe reportedly collected evidence, including photos of the bruises on her body allegedly caused by one of the men hitting her. She also had not washed the dress to save as potential evidence, the Times also reported.

Doe also went to an emergency room in Ithaca, where Cornell is located, and requested a rape kit on November 7, the Times reported, citing the documents.

The report and the university’s response

November 8, 2024: Doe reported the incident to Cornell University police. The same day, Chi Phi’s Xi chapter was placed on temporary suspension for alleged violations of the student code of conduct, the lawsuit says.

According to CNN affiliate WCBS and the Times, which obtained the transcript as part of the Title IX filings, Doe explicitly told police she was assaulted and described emotional pressure to participate and said she was physically hit.

“I can say with 100% confidence I was raped,” Doe said in the transcript of her interview with Cornell police obtained by WCBS.

CNN has not seen the transcript and has asked Cornell for a copy but has not heard back.

Doe also told police she “had become extremely uncomfortable with how this night was turning out” and thought, “if I passed out and the men had sex with me, then they could be charged with Rape,” the transcript reads.

Doe said she remembered consuming a “heavy amount” of ketamine, smoking marijuana and having “various things” poured on her body. She said she initially agreed to having drugs consumed off her body while feeling “extremely tired” but “couldn’t tell what they were pouring on me,” WCBS reports, citing the transcript.

November 15, 2024: Doe signs a six-page voluntary statement compiled by the Cornell University Police Department based on her interview.

It does not include Doe’s direct accusation of rape that appears in the transcript of the interview, but does include her saying she was “pretty incapacitated,” and “horrified” as more men entered the room. She also described being physically hit.

“I felt like due to my intoxication, they should have known how intoxicated I was based on how I was slurring my words,” the statement reads.

The statement was the only document initially provided to District Attorney Van Houten by the police department, he said after the lawsuit was filed. He made the decision to not file any charges based on the statement, he said in a news release last month, because it “did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped.”

“Multiple prosecutors and criminal investigators reviewed Jane Doe’s statement and correctly determined the alleged facts as set forth in the statement do not constitute a crime,” the news release said.

Cornell had previously said it had turned over all investigative information to the district attorney but later amended its public release of information to say it shared the victim’s sworn statement and the Snapchat screenshot with the district attorney.

It has not responded to CNN’s questions about why the full transcript of Jane Doe’s police interview, which included Doe’s explicit rape accusation, was not included in the statement prepared by police for the DA.

November 26, 2024: More than a month after the alleged assault, Cornell released a statement acknowledging “serious and deeply disturbing allegations of drug abuse and sexual violence at the Chi Phi fraternity house.”

The school said it was “reviewing all reported information” and the week prior had given temporary suspensions to a number of students.

January 14, 2025: The university opened its formal investigation under Title IX – the federal law requiring schools to respond to reports of sexual assault – in response to Doe’s report.

May 2–29, 2025: The Title IX office held numerous hearings – at least a dozen. It conducted more than 50 interviews, including with six of the seven men, according to the document obtained by CNN on the panel’s findings. Cornell has said the process led to a range of sanctions, including suspensions and expulsions, and the Chi Phi chapter was closed and remains barred from campus.

During that investigation, four of the fraternity members acknowledged having sexual contact with Doe, but said the interactions were consensual, according to the transcripts of confidential investigative files obtained by The New York Times.

The others denied participating in sexual encounters, the Times said. They all denied wrongdoing and the majority said Doe did not seem intoxicated.

The men’s accounts differed, contradicted each other, and were contrary to what Doe told police, the Times report said.

One said he was “a victim of sexual misconduct” because Doe had given him oral sex when he was “too incapacitated” to consent, the Times reported.

The lawyers for three of the men named in Doe’s lawsuit have since issued statements denying wrongdoing.

CNN has been unable to reach the other four men named in the lawsuit for comment. It’s unclear if they have representation.

November 4, 2025: More than a year after the alleged assault, Cornell released the results of its 2025 campus sexual-assault survey, citing an increased prevalence of sexual misconduct on campus.

The lawsuit is filed and the case reopened

September 16: Doe filed her complaint in New York County.

September 18: The Cornell Daily Sun broke the news, and the case quickly drew national attention.

Doe’s attorney said only two of the men named in the lawsuit were expelled, with the others receiving lesser punishment, including suspensions, workshops or written assignments.

September 21: Cornell issued its first statement responding to the lawsuit, saying it couldn’t comment on disciplinary actions due to privacy laws.

September 28: District Attorney Van Houten announces his office is reopening the case and will seek a grand jury review to determine if criminal charges are warranted.

“The decision made in November of 2024 that the evidence did not support the filing of criminal charges was legally correct,” Van Houten said in a statement provided to CNN. “At the same time, I recognize the reality that it can take years of therapy and healing for victims of sexual assaults to fully process and understand what happened to them.”

The same day, Cornell issued a second statement, welcoming the prosecutor’s announcement and pushing back on claims of lenient discipline. Its Title IX panel “issued a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions,” the statement said, and “none of the individuals charged were offered the opportunity to write essays as a sole consequence.” Any suggestion that the university “did not impose consequential punishments,” it added, “is false.”

September 29: The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James says it will review Cornell’s response to the allegations. Gov. Kathy Hochul called the allegations “horrifying” and urged an independent outside review.

October 1: Hochul announces she is appointing James as a special prosecutor because she’s “lost faith” in Van Houten’s ability to conduct the investigation.

James will have the power to investigate the incident and, if warranted, prosecute any offenses and present evidence to a grand jury.

“The young woman at the center of this case deserves to know that every fact will be examined and justice pursued.”

Cornell told CNN it supports the governor’s decision.

October 2: During a news conference, Hochul said, “I want the truth. I think every parent in this state, every New Yorker, wants the truth in this case.” The governor added she has “every confidence” in James “to get it right.”

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CNN’s Jason Carroll, Linh Tran and Chris Boyette contributed to this report.