The attorney representing a former Cornell University student who said she was gang-raped for hours in 2024 after she was pressured to take ketamine decried the initial investigation and accused both law enforcement officials and the school of failing his client.“She was a young woman who went to Cornell with high hopes, thought that this was her dream come true, and then that didn’t happen,” Thomas P.Giuffra told NBC News on Monday.
“Now she’s not in college.She’s not pursuing her goals, and she’s just trying to hang on.”In a written statement Monday, the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, said she hopes “to recover from this trauma but it is extremely difficult.
It affects every aspect of my life.It will haunt me and be part of me the rest of my life.”Add to GoogleCornell University alleged fraternity rape investigation reopened02:09In a civil lawsuit filed this month, Doe alleges that Chi Phi fraternity brothers sexually assaulted her and that one sent a message encouraging other members to participate in the attack.The fraternity chapter was subsequently barred from campus, but no one was criminally charged.
According to the lawsuit, some of the students were able to “mitigate their conduct” by writing essays to the university.“Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false,” Kyle Kimball, Cornell’s vice president for university relations, said in a statement.Giuffra told NBC News that in the days following the alleged assault, his client was “traumatized, numb and unable to function or accept the horror of what had happened.” She was in “self-preservation mode,” he said, and had faith that university officials would investigate her claims thoroughly.“She wanted to give Cornell the opportunity to make this right, because this was her expectation.So she didn’t want to start a lawsuit,” he said.She filed the civil lawsuit, which names the Chi Phi chapter, Chi ...