Jane Doe’s family home hit with swatting attack after Cornell rape allegations: lawyer

LISTEN | 'It was difficult before. It's gotten considerably worse':

The Current13:59Why Jane Doe's lawyer fears for her safety

A SWAT team with assault rifles recently descended on the family home of Jane Doe, the woman at the centre of the Cornell University rape allegations, her lawyer says.

“A group of police showed up responding to a call, because somebody had said somebody was being killed in the house,” said Thomas Giuffra, a civil trial attorney and a partner at Rheingold Giuffra Ruffo Plotkin & Hellman in New York.

"Swatting" is a harassment technique involving calling police to falsely report an ongoing serious incident like a shooting or hostage-taking, in order to draw a response to a location.

“Her father, her brother, a friend of hers all had weapons drawn on them,” he told The Current’s guest host Piya Chattopadhyay.

Giuffra said the incident is part of escalating threats against the woman, who is identified only as Jane Doe in court documents but has faced concerted efforts to publish her identity online.

In a lawsuit filed last month, the woman alleges that she was gang raped at a Chi Phi fraternity party on the university’s campus in Ithaca, N.Y., in 2024. She initially reported the alleged assault to campus police but no criminal charges were laid.

Jane Doe is now suing the seven men, the Chi Phi fraternity, the university and others for undisclosed damages, in a lawsuit that alleges she suffered "severe emotional and psychological distress and personal physical injury" due to the alleged assault and the university’s response. All seven men named in the lawsuit deny any wrongdoing.

WATCH | SWAT team aimed weapons at Jane Doe's family:

Jane Doe’s home was swatted, says lawyer in Cornell gang-rape case

3 hours ago|

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1:04

'It's gotten considerably worse'

The case has garnered global attention, with many expressing support and outrage, but also fevered online speculation about the woman's identity.

“It's been a challenging month for her. It was difficult before. It's gotten considerably worse,” Giuffra said.

Authorities have now re-opened a criminal investigation. On Tuesday, Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff published a statement on the university’s website, apologizing “for the harm Jane Doe suffered in 2024.” 

He also pledged to suspend frat parties for the remainder of the academic year, add sexual assault investigators to the campus police force and provide better supports for survivors. 

Giuffra welcomed the changes, but said these measures should have already been in place when they could have protected his client.

“She's trying to change the culture of Cornell … we're trying to make sure that there are no more Jane Does,” he said. 

“There's a real problem and maybe this is an opportunity to effectuate some kind of change … because obviously something's being lost.”

WATCH | 'We're trying to make sure that there are no more Jane Does':

‘She’s trying to change the culture of Cornell,’ says Jane Doe’s lawyer

3 hours ago|

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Need to educate young men

Giuffra has represented plaintiffs in several high-profile cases concerning sexual assault, including lawsuits against Harvey Weinstein and Sean (Diddy) Combs.  

While he once believed there was a positive change underway, he now worries the culture of sexual assault might be more prevalent than he even realized.

“It's not just in colleges. It's when these guys get out of college. It is when they get middle-aged, like I am,” he said.

He thinks there’s a need “to deal with it early on … to educate young men on how to treat women.”

WATCH | 'Cornell 7' case sparks conversation about sexual violence:

The high-profile Cornell 7 case has sparked a conversation about sexual violence

October 7|

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Stafford Perry works with WiseGuyz, a Calgary-based organization that runs workshops for Grade 9 boys about masculinity, healthy relationships and consent.

“WiseGuyz started because this exact conversation is not working, young men are not hearing this. So how do we create a space where they're welcomed into the conversation?” he said.

In Perry’s work, that often starts with conversations about relationships in general, helping boys to understand their own values — and the value of relationships that aren’t violent or coercive.

The workshops also give the boys strategies to speak up or disrupt conversations where they feel something isn’t right, something Perry said the boys are keen to do. 

“They want to be free of these spaces that are coercive and violent and maintain this pressure,” he said.

Young men need to do better. And we need to support them and give those spaces to do thatStafford Perry

Sarah Paciocco also works in sexual assault prevention training with a junior hockey team, the Soo Greyhounds, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. 

She said it’s important to help boys overcome the stigma about what it means to be “manly,” and show them it’s OK to discuss healthy relationships and emotions.

“We're getting at these boys younger and younger, where they're going to now be growing up and learning that it's OK to talk, it's OK to speak up, it's OK to speak out,” said Paciocco, who is a sexual abuse and crisis counsellor at Women In Crisis Algoma.

Perry said this work is “not a one-off conversation.”

“This is about building skills from a really young age … this has to be something that's consistently reinforced,” he said. 

“Young men need to do better. And we need to support them and give those spaces to do that.”

LISTEN | Consent education: What's working, and what's standing in the way?:

The Current19:17We talk about consent. So why isn't it working?

Cornell president not resigning

Kotlikoff, the Cornell University president, spoke to The New York Times Tuesday, acknowledging that he learned about the incident shortly after the female student reported it in November 2024, but did not follow up in the ensuing months. He indicated to the newspaper that he did not intend to resign. 

Giuffra said he does not have an opinion on whether Kotlikoff should step down or not.

“I don't think my client has a position on it, we're trying to deal with the culture of abuse that's going on in Cornell, that's our bailiwick,” he said.

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Giuffra said his client went to Cornell with hopes and dreams for her education and future career, but her life has been upended. She tried to live in New York for a time, but returned home to her parents’ house when the lawsuit gained global attention. 

“She just went back home to her safe place, which was her parents' house. And then of course, now that's not safe because her house has been swatted,” he said.

“I don't know the future. I mean, hopefully … she can move on and continue her education and have a normal life. But for the last two years, this has been her life.”