Cornell students 2024 statement to police reveals new details about the night of her alleged rape
The Cornell University student who alleged in a lawsuit that she was gang-raped and plied with drugs at a fraternity house in 2024 described the hourslong incident to police in a sworn statement, according to the document, which was obtained by NBC News.Jane Doe told police in part that she had agreed to an initial sexual encounter with two of the men, described being encouraged to take drugs and said she did not remember some parts of the night.
“I would say that it was the most intoxicated I’ve ever been in my life,” she told police about how she was feeling later in the evening.“I felt like I was unable to make any decisions because of how intoxicated I was.”Jane Doe voluntarily gave the sworn statement to Cornell University police on Nov.
14, 2024, 26 days after the alleged assault.In it, she detailed the night of Oct.
19 to 20, when she initially agreed to a threesome, but she said that she felt increasingly incapacitated as the night went on, that she had gaps in her memory and that at one point she was “extremely uncomfortable.”“Adding to my feelings of isolation was the fact that my phone was across the room and I felt like I couldn’t get to it, as well as I didn’t have any form of payment to order an Uber to get out of the situation I was in,” she told police.The former student’s lawsuit, filed Sept.
16, has sparked national furor over the university’s and the district attorney’s handling of the case.It has prompted the DA to take a fresh look after his office previously determined there was “insufficient evidence to support criminal charges” when the case was reviewed in 2024.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten released a lengthy statement Monday, which included parts of Doe’s sworn statement to Cornell police in November 2024, and defended his initial decision not to pursue criminal charges.His statement did not include details in which Doe referred to how, at one point, she felt the most incapacita...