'We Can Joke' To '90% Non-Consensual': Texts At Center Of Cornell Rape Case

Since mid-September, a lawsuit has left the Cornell community deeply unsettled after a former student, identified in court filings only as Jane Doe, has sued the university and seven former Chi Phi fraternity members, alleging that in October 2024 she was drugged with ketamine and raped at the fraternity's house.

All seven men-- identified in the lawsuit as Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar-- deny the claims. Some said the sex was consensual, while others claimed they had no involvement. The local district attorney had first concluded that the woman had consented and that no crime occurred, but the case has since been reopened and transferred to New York's attorney general.

After a Title IX investigation that lasted several months, Cornell disciplined several of the accused. Two students were expelled, and two were suspended and placed on probation. Two others were ordered to write "reflection" papers and complete bystander training. The seventh man had already graduated and was banned from campus, according to records reviewed by The New York Times.

The publication has now published dozens of text messages exchanged between Chi Phi members and Jane Doe in the weeks that followed the alleged drug-fuelled sexual assault. The texts have reportedly been drawn from more than 1,000 pages of Cornell University files and formed the basis of the former student's lawsuit, which was filed in September.

The suit accused Newell and Ingalls of assaulting her during an initial threesome. She alleged Newell and Lopes assaulted her during another encounter. The lawsuit said Sarabia forcibly kissed her, and Newell pressured her to snort ketamine, an anaesthetic drug, off his erect penis. She said the night ended with Ingalls and Lee assaulting her while she was incapacitated from ketamine.

The Text

The chain starts with the night of the party on October 19, 2024. Jane Doe texted her roommate that she was going to an event hosted by their sorority, Delta Delta Delta, with their house mother, whom she identified in her lawsuit as an employee of her sorority.

On October 20, 2024, the woman, then 20, went to the Chi Phi house, where she began a threesome with Matthew Ingalls and Jonathan Newell in a part of the house known as the "alum" room.

In a Snapchat thread time-stamped at 1:42 am, a Chi Phi member identified as "Jonathan Nool", who investigators later identified as Newell, told other fraternity members to "pu", or "pull up", to the room. 

In the same thread, Ingall told other members, "You can walk in and whip it out rn (right now)." 

At around 3:05 am on the same day, Jane Doe's roommate messaged her asking if she was coming back home for the night, to which she replied she "doesn't know right now."

Over the next few days, some of the men she accused in her lawsuit reached out to Jane Doe about what happened that night, including Diego Sarabia, whom she accused of kissing her without consent and snorting ketamine off her body, but not of rape.

In his message to Doe, Sarabia apologises for anything he said, and she replied, saying everyone was drunk, high and confused, and hopes they can joke about it privately later.

"I really appreciate the text, and I didn't think in your heart you were a mean guy or anything. I figured it was a defence thing cause like, that was obv an insane night and I think everyone was really confused, drunk, high, and nervous. I really do still think highly of chi phi and I'm not a person to pretend I don't know people after any sexual affair no matter the magnitude. So I do look forward to seeing y'all around. While we're all obviously denying what happened to anyone who asks, I hope that we can joke about all this (in private obv) later down the line," Doe wrote. 

She asks him to thank the other "Scotty" for pausing to check on her. "I do remember there were two Scotty's?? Unless I was getting fucked with, but one of them sat beside me and told me to take a few minutes before I got up, and I really appreciated his care for my well-being. Sometimes it's easy to feel a little dehumanised in a heated sexual situation, and I appreciated his pausing for me to collect myself. If you wouldn't mind telling him I said thank you, that would be great," she further wrote. 

Newell also reached out to her that night and apologised, saying his memory of the night was fuzzy, and that he should have "shut" things down "before it got way out of hand."

"My memory's kinda fuzzy abt a lot of it, but me and Matt both feel like shit for being too fucked up to shut it down and kick people out before it got way out of hand...We've been shutting down any stories we've heard but again, I'm so so sorry," he wrote.

Doe answered that she liked being with him and Ingalls, that she doesn't think it was illegal, and that she remembers using ketamine. He says he doesn't remember that.

"I think we were all way to fucking drunk and high. I'm getting a little heat (pi phi girls ([classmate] and [classmate]) can't get my name out of their mouth)) but that's to be expected. But at the end of the day, none of the sexual stuff was illegal, and honestly I really liked being w u and Matt. So anything anyone has to say about the gamgbang is out of their jurisdiction. I don't think we should feel any shame for the part. our body, our choice," she said. 

Doe also reminded him that she remembers using ketamine from his penius, to which Newell replies he doesn't remember that.

She also told him the encounter will "be funny in a couple months," and Newell replied by saying "so funny."

On October 23, Jane Doe exchanged messages with Ingalls about the spreading rumours. She also complains of having a urinary tract infection.

"Bro everyone knows. I'm incredibly stressed out; some random bitch [classmate] told some of my friends. I don't even know who that is; how tf she know me???," she wrote. 

"Dude I have no fucking idea, this shit is incredibly frustrating, and now I know how fast nonsense spreads at this school," Ingalls replied.

He also claimed, "boring people who have nothing to do with their time" were behind the rumours and assured her that " It'll blow over in a couple days" and "until then, we just have to sit tight."

Doe then complained that the gossip was "ruining my life temporarily" and that her "reputation is destroyed and I'm utterly ashamed."

"I feel like I know who some of the rats in the room were. If I ever find out, I swear to God it's in sight," she said, suggesting she had an idea who spread the news about the encounter on the campus. 

On October 24, Doe reached out to Newell, apparently concerned that he had described their sexual encounters to members of the Pi Phi sorority.

Newell replied, saying he went to the sorority "fully prepared to be interrogated and deny everything, but they never even brought it up."

"I think it's mostly blown over by now," he wrote. 

On October 25, Doe suggested to Ingalls that Newell is not being honest with her and that he was the one talking to people about the night.

Ingalls appeared to dismiss her concern, saying, "He didn't talk about it at pi phi for sure. They wouldn't bring that up in front of him when his story has been that it's not true the whole time." 

A week later, on October 26, Doe came across a post on an anonymous gossip forum, Greek Rank, that refers to the Chi Phi party. Later in the day, another comment appears on the forum. The posts, Doe would later tell campus investigators, prompted her to change her view of what happened at the party.

On October 30, Ingalls assured Jane Doe that she is still invited to Chi Phi's upcoming Halloween party. But as they were chatting, she told him that the fraternity president had called to uninvite her.

The next day, when Ingalls checked in on her again, she replied with a flat "no."

On November 3, Doe reached out to Newell. It was the first message in the investigative files in which she told one of the seven men that what happened to her was not consensual.

"Let's be clear that 90 per cent of what happened that night was not consensual. I was given more key than I can remember, and I know that I told you I felt uncomfortable and I didn't know anyone in the room. All I remember after that was u giving me ket to do off your dick in front of everyone like a sex doll/worker," she wrote. 

On November 7, she told Ingalls that she had gone to the emergency room, where medical records showed she was seen for "sexual assault." He asked whether she had called him an assailant. 

Doe replied, saying she hasn't named him but has spoken against Newell and warned a friend off Chi Phi.

On November 8, Chi Phi members' chat showed that Cornell had temporarily suspended the fraternity over drug reports. Ingalls asked the fraternity president whether to call Doe, and the president said to wait and see if she says anything. The excerpt cuts off mid-sentence.