Cornell Title IX investigation docs reveal new details on rape investigation

CBS News has examined hundreds of pages of transcripts obtained by CBS News New York of the Title IX investigation conducted by Cornell University into the allegations made by a former student who claims she was drugged and gang-raped at a fraternity house in October 2024.

The 565 pages of transcripts were obtained by CBS News New York from a source.

The woman, who was 20 years old at the time and has been identified only as Jane Doe, was interviewed over two days by campus police in mid-November 2024, about three weeks after the alleged incident occurred. 

The interview was used as the basis for a six-page statement that was then provided to Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who told CBS News this week that he was never provided the full transcripts of that interview.

No criminal charges have been brought. 

A Title IX investigation was also conducted by Cornell in 2025, during which about 50 interviews were conducted with 32 witnesses. 

Last month, Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against the university and seven members of the Chi Pi fraternity in connection with the alleged sexual assault. 

Since then, Van Houten has said he will reopen the investigation, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order assigning New York Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor into the incident. Cornell said it supports the governor's decision. CBS News has reached out to Van Houten for comment on the assignment of a special prosecutor. 

In the room during the two-day interview on Nov. 14, 2024, was a Cornell police investigator who led the questioning, along with a Title IX investigator, a victim advocate and a personal adviser to Jane Doe.

Here are some of the takeaways from the Title IX transcripts.

The events leading up to the alleged sexual assault

Jane Doe told campus police investigators the night started on Oct. 19, 2024, in her sorority house as part of a "date night," a sorority event in which sisters bring friends or plus-ones for a night out. She said she and her sisters started drinking and went to a bar downtown, where they proceeded to drink further.

She described having barely eaten anything that day and became quickly inebriated. Doe was looking forward to meeting up with a person — who is named in the transcripts but who CBS News is identifying as Male 1 — after he invited her to his fraternity, Chi Pi.

Jane Doe says she initially had a consensual sexual encounter at the fraternity

When she arrived at Chi Pi, Jane Doe told campus police that she had a consensual sexual encounter in a room of the fraternity house with both Male 1 and a second person, Male 2.  

Asked by investigators if she was OK with that sexual encounter, Jane Doe responded, "As much as I can be because, again, I was super drunk when I got there," according to the transcript. But she added she felt she was "really off-guard the entire night. The whole night, I was just completely caught off-guard."

Male 2 says Jane Doe initially declined to take ketamine

When Male 2 was questioned by campus police investigators, he told them that during the initial sexual encounter, they discovered ketamine in the room.

Male 2 said that both he and Male 1 ingested ketamine, but that Jane Doe declined.

Group Snapchat message sent out to the entire fraternity

It was at that point that the situation deteriorated, according to interviews with Jane Doe and several fraternity members.  

At 1:42 a.m. on Oct. 20, 2024, according to the lawsuit she filed, a message was sent in the fraternity's Snapchat group suggesting that a woman was available in the frat house for sex. CBS News New York obtained video of that conversation.

"Shop still open?" one fraternity brother wrote in reply to the Snapchat message, and he received the response, "Yea."

A person, Male 6, told campus police investigators that about 50 fraternity members were on that particular Snapchat thread. He recounted receiving the initial message while he was in another part of the fraternity house and being "befuddled" by it.

Another person, Male 7, told police investigators the first Snapchat message in the chain was sent by Male 1.

"We saw the text and were somewhat concerned but thought it could be just crude humor," Male 7 said.

Cornell University has said its police department shared the victim's sworn six-page statement and a screenshot of the Snapchat thread with the DA's office. 

Jane Doe says she felt "cornered"

Jane Doe told investigators that as several more men entered the room, and the alleged sexual assault began, she felt "cornered."

"I was like literally cornered," she said. "… I'm a naked woman and they are getting in bed with me."

In the interview, she told campus police investigators: "I was a sex doll for all intents and purposes, which is sad but, unfortunately, something I'm not used to, or something that I haven't experienced before."

At another point that night, she said she was taken out of the room, placed in a closet and given ketamine.

"I didn't remember the very end of the event where I was raped," Jane Doe told campus investigators, according to the transcripts. "I can say with 100% confidence I was raped."

Van Houten previously told CBS News New York that he was never specifically shown the transcripts of Jane Doe's interview. When told Jane Doe had said she was confident she was raped, Van Houten told CBS News New York, "That wasn't information that I had, first of all. Second of all, that is a legal conclusion."

"If she had said those words, we certainly would want to have explored that more," Van Houten continued. "Like I said, that wasn't provided to me."

According to her lawsuit, Jane Doe alleges the sexual assaults continued until she lost consciousness at about 5:45 a.m.

The aftermath of the alleged sexual assault

 
Jane Doe told campus investigators that two days after the incident, on Oct. 22, she made an appointment at Cornell Health. In that appointment, she told the doctor she had contracted a urinary tract infection in a "traumatic way," but Jane Doe said she chose not to follow up. Her attorney told CBS News in a statement that the doctor advised her to "speak with somebody."

"I know that certain drugs … with the hair test … only live three weeks, so I was like I need to really rush to get this done," Jane Doe said in her interview. "I still have the dress from the night. I have not washed it — not in a gross way, just in an evidence way." 

Jane Doe told campus investigators she also later visited GreekRank, a website that ranks fraternities and sororities, and under Chi Pi's listing, saw a comment that appeared to make mention of the alleged sexual assault.

"And that's kind of when I came to the realization that I had been gang-raped," she said, according to the transcripts.

She also told campus investigators that three men from that night, including Male 1 and Male 2, had sent her text messages apologizing.

One of Jane Doe's sorority sisters told campus investigators that Jane Doe had told her sorority big sister "that she had moments where she would come in and out throughout the night of remembering things."

Jane Doe eventually left Cornell without graduating. The university later shut down the Cornell chapter of the Chi Pi fraternity. 

CBS News has reached out to the seven defendants named in the lawsuit for comment. Attorneys for two of them have denied the allegations. 

In a Sept. 29 meeting, Cornell President Michael I. Kotlikoff disclosed that two of the accused were expelled, two suspended for at least two semesters, one had already graduated before any punishment could be handed down, and two were found not to be responsible for sexual misconduct.