Jane Doe’s attorney argues she was “incapable of consent” because she was “completely, grossly intoxicated” when she arrived at a Cornell fraternity house the night she was allegedly raped in October 2024.
“She didn’t have consent from the time she walked in the door; she was incapable of consent,” her lawyer, Thomas Giuffra, told CBS News.Â
Giuffra claims Jane Doe was pressured to take ketamine, which he says left her feeling as though she were “floating above herself” and like a ragdoll — unable to stop what was happening.
“And she felt like, you know, like a sex worker just being shuffled from place to place in a bit, unable to stop it,” he said, referring to transcripts of Jane Doe’s testimony in Cornell’s Title IX investigation.
“Convinced there was a cover-up”
Giuffra says the investigation into her alleged rape failed at nearly every turn, and he now believes university officials were more focused on protecting Cornell’s reputation than seeking accountability. Jane Doe has filed a lawsuit against the university as well as the seven former fraternity brothers.
CBS News New York has reached out to all of the accused and, as of Friday afternoon, heard back from attorneys for two, who denied the allegations. A third man’s attorney has also publicly denied wrongdoing, according to The New York Times. Cornell University said in a statement that it conducted a “thorough Title IX investigation” over several months and it supports the Tompkins County district attorney’s decision to reopen the case.
“I’m more and more convinced there was a cover-up. I mean, at first I thought it was just bumbling, but now I think there was a cover-up. I think they were worried about protecting the reputation of the university. They were protecting the big source of revenue in the county,” he said.
The woman, who was a 20-year-old sophomore at the time, filed a report with Cornell University Police three weeks after the alleged rapes. Giuffra believes investigators failed to take basic steps, including interviewing witnesses identified in the fraternity’s group chat, questioning the men involved and securing their phones and other evidence while it was still fresh.
“Any case, civil, criminal, you get the evidence as close to the event as possible, and they just blew it. I was shocked, really,” he said, claiming that Cornell University Police “were in over their heads” handling a serious crime.
Gov. Kathy Hochul also said she was “deeply disturbed” by how Cornell Police and the Tompkins County district attorney handled the case, calling the department’s decision to send the D.A. the victim’s six-page sworn statement but not the full transcript “a failure” and criticizing the D.A. for not conducting any interviews. On Friday, Hochul named New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the case.Â
Giuffra said the lawsuit was filed after Jane Doe went through Cornell’s Title IX process and reached a point where she felt ready to move forward.Â
“We needed to make sure she was in the right space. There was a time period where she didn’t feel like she would be able to handle any backlash that came out of it, and she reached a place where she felt that she was ready. And that’s when we filed the lawsuit,” Giuffra said, adding that it took time to put together the 101-page complaint.
“The smoking gun”
A screengrab included in the lawsuit appears to show one of the defendants sent a message in a Snapchat group with dozens of fraternity members saying there was a woman upstairs for “free” sex.Â
“Look, that group chat went out to over 50 men. Not one of those 50 men did anything to stop it,” Giuffra believes.
Giuffra said the only person who did the right thing was the man who leaked the group chat, because without it, “we wouldn’t have the smoking gun.”
CBS News New York investigative reporter Mahsa Saeidi obtained screenshots of text messages between Jane Doe and one of the defendants sent just days after the alleged assault, in which Doe wrote that “none of the sexual stuff was illegal.” Giuffra confirmed she exchanged texts with this defendant shortly after the alleged assault, but he could not confirm specific exchanges.
The message has drawn scrutiny, with social media users questioning how it aligns with the allegations in the lawsuit.
Giuffra said she was initially going through denial. As rumors around campus began to spread, Jane Doe said she “came to the realization that [she] had been gang raped,” according to newly obtained records from the Title IX investigation.
Four out of the seven named in the lawsuit are specifically accused of rape.
“They’re not all gang rapists. They’re all sexual abusers, though,” Giuffra said, adding that the others also acted inappropriately and need to be held accountable.
