Cornell Jane Doe's lawyer trashes new texts that suggest alleged gang-rape was consensual and says she was suffering from 'delayed recognition' when she sent them

The attorney for a Cornell student who accused a group of fraternity brothers of gang raping her has dismissed newly-unearthed text messages his client sent suggesting the sexual encounter was consensual. 

Attorney Thomas Giuffra told the Daily Mail that his client, identified under the pseudonym Jane Doe, maintains her allegations that she was drugged and sexually assaulted at the Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024. 

He brushed off text messages revealed by TMZ on Thursday that show Jane Doe downplayed the alleged assault in conversations with two of the men she accused, Matthew Ingalls and Jonathan Newell. 

She told Newell that 'none of the sexual stuff was illegal,' and described the incident as a 'gangbang' that was 'our body our choice' in text messages. 

But Giuffra said the messages did not suggest the encounter was consensual.

He argued that Jane Doe was showing 'classic symptoms of delayed recognition' about the gravity of the incident, meaning it took some time for her to realize that she had been the victim of an alleged crime. 

'This is a well-known phenomenon which is widely reported in medical and psychological literature,' the attorney said. 

'Most rape survivors do not immediately identify what happened to them as rape.' 

Ingalls, Newell and the other accused fraternity members – Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar – have not been charged with any crime, and they all deny the allegations against them.

The attorney for a Cornell student who accused a group of fraternity brothers of gang rape has fired back at suggestions newly released text messages show the incident was consensual

The fraternity brothers have insisted that they did not sexually assault Jane Doe, and those that admit to sexual activity have said the incident was consensual. 

Local prosecutors declined to bring charges against the men, however the allegations from 2024 led Cornell to launch a Title IX investigation that resulted in Newell and Ingalls both being expelled. 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul last week appointed her Attorney General Letitia James to investigate whether Jane Doe had been the victim of a crime. The text messages that have been released in recent days are likely to sow reasonable doubt in the minds of any juror who may eventually be asked to try the case.

In the messages revealed on Thursday, Jane Doe was shown to have been nervously messaging Newell and Ingalls about rumors of their tryst spreading around Cornell's campus, and she said she was worried her 'reputation is destroyed.'

They spoke of 'narrowing down the suspects' for who spread the rumors, and both men reassured Jane Doe that they had tried to shut down the gossip. 

However, the messages also appeared to contradict the allegations of rape that Jane Doe brought in her civil lawsuit, including telling Newell: 'At the end of the day none of the sexual stuff was illegal, and honestly i really liked being w u and matt.'

'I don't think we should feel any shame for the part. our body our choice asf,' she wrote.  

Giuffra told the Daily Mail that despite the release of the text messages between Jane Doe and the two men, the civil lawsuit against the seven fraternity brothers contained a 'mountain of evidence' to support her claims. 

'It does a disservice to survivors to selectively utilize information without understanding what it means,' the attorney said. 

The texts show the accuser Jane Doe told fraternity brother Matthew Ingalls (above) that she was concerned her reputation was 'destroyed' by campus rumours

'Following the assault, Ms. Doe exhibited the classic symptoms of delayed recognition. This is a well-known phenomenon which is widely reported in medical and psychological literature. 

'Most rape survivors do not immediately identify what happened to them as rape.

'In the immediate aftermath of a rape, the brain processes trauma through shock, dissociation, appeasing, or masking distress rather than immediately identifying it as rape.

'When the perpetrator is a romantic partner or friend, victims frequently second-guess their own perception. This is exactly what Ms. Doe was doing here.' 

Giuffra added that Jane Doe's alleged experience involved alcohol and drugs, which can result in 'confusion, memory-gaps or self-blame that obscures the emotional reality of non-consensual acts at first.'

Protests erupted on Cornell's campus this week as Jane Doe's case continues to spark controversy across the nation 

'Survivors are unable to identify an assault as rape until they process the event and engage with trusted friends who help them reach the point of acceptance,' he said. 

'Once Ms. Doe was able to accept the fact that she was a survivor of sexual assault, she vigorously confronted the perpetrators and pursued her rights.'

'Unfortunately, we live in a world of 5 second clips without the ability or desire to understand the mental processing of rape survivors and the anguish that they go through in processing their trauma.

'We have tried to explain this in interviews previously. The desire for a simple answer to a complex question does a disservice to survivors.

'Delayed recognition has been studied extensively in medical science.'