More information is coming to light about what the people at the center of the Cornell University alleged rape case said in the days and weeks after the incident.
CBS News New York obtained a Title IX record from a source that includes Jane Doe’s account, interviews with six of the seven men named in the lawsuit, and 20 witnesses.
According to the record, a student who had been at the Chi Phi house the night of the alleged assault in 2024 says she got a call the next day from one of the accused men. She said the call took place right before an event at her sorority.
The student alleges the man asked her to make sure a friend of hers didn’t “say anything that she thinks might’ve happened last night,” and he added that another fraternity member was “really concerned.”
The student said at the time, she didn’t think much of it and assumed he was just embarrassed and didn’t want a rumor to spread.
The record says the student said she passed the message along to her friend, who was also later interviewed by investigators.
That friend said the man’s alleged comments “clicked” weeks later when Cornell sent out a campus crime alert.
“It makes a lot more sense,” she told the investigator. “And it was very concerning.”
The friend and a third woman, her roommate, said they went to Cornell Police. She says she wrote a witness statement, but added, “I’m pretty sure I don’t know what they did with that.”
What happened to that witness statement is not referenced in the 565 pages of the Title IX record obtained by CBS News New York.
Online, Cornell originally said it shared all investigatory information with the Tompkins County district attorney’s office, but has since changed its FAQ to say it shared “the victim’s sworn statement and the Snapchat screenshot.” The DA told CBS News New York he only received Jane Doe’s 2024 statement and a Snapchat video.
According to the record, the investigator asked the accused man if he ever had a phone call with the first student about that night. He said, “No.”
A month later, in written corrections, he said that he “did talk to her at one point when she visited about not spreading any rumors.”
Earlier in that same interview, the record shows when asked how the fraternity brothers handled the rumors, he said, “We were just in the idea of just deny.”
The district attorney initially declined to bring charges against any of the accused men, but has now reopened the investigation.Â
