The ex-Cornell University student who alleges she was gang-raped at a fraternity house party two years ago told one of the accused men that she recalled “looking up and being like that is too many people,” according to new documents in the case.
Records obtained by ABC News reveal that several of the men who have since been accused of sexually assaulting the woman, known as Jane Doe, tried to contain the allegations in the weeks after the incident in October 2024. Doe is suing seven men and the university after alleging she was gang-raped for hours while she was highly intoxicated, according to the lawsuit.The accused have not been criminally charged, but prosecutors reopened the case after the civil suit.
Students who were later interviewed by Cornell’s campus authorities said some members of the Chi Phi fraternity were doing “damage control” after the incident to ensure that Doe was “not upset about the situation,” according to records reviewed by the outlet.
One student told campus authorities that members of the fraternity “tried to contact [Jane] almost every day after it happened to, I guess, keep them on her good side and keep her happy and not upset about the situation,” according to the outlet.
In the days and weeks after the incident, Doe’s perception of what allegedly unfolded that night began to shift, leading her to conclude that it was not consensual. At an internal investigative hearing at Cornell months later, Doe reportedly characterized what happened as “the coverup these boys attempted.”
Doe reported the incident to Cornell’s police department on Nov.8, triggering the suspension of the Chi Phi fraternity and a months-long investigation. Two men were expelled and others were suspended.
The day before, Doe had a phone call with one of the accused, Matthew Ingalls, and told him she was “trying to piece it together.”
Ingalls has not been charged with a crime and has not yet responded to the accusations publicly. Lawyers for at least three of the accused men deny any accusations of wrongdoing.
Doe spoke with Ingalls again after she reported the incident to get his assessment of what happened. She also spoke with two other men and recorded the phone calls, according to ABC News, which released audio of some of the calls.
She asked Ingalls, “Do you remember how any of these guys walked in?”
He told her that the door was “just unlocked...the party was sort of like crowded...there was nowhere else to go.”
Ingalls did not tell Doe about the messages he sent to Chi Phi members on Snapchat, where he said, “Like you can walk in and whip it out,” according to ABC News.
Doe bluntly told Ingalls: “What y'all did would be classified as gang rape.”
Ingalls replied: “It's possible that both of us like remember this and it's not true.”
“I don't think that that's true. No, no, because I remember looking up and being like that is too many people,” Doe told Ingalls, according to ABC News.
The documents reportedly revealed at least one instance when Ingalls appeared to ask a witness - a friend of Doe’s - to “submit new evidence” that could exonerate him, and accused Doe of lying.
“You could submit new evidence that could get me and [Name Omitted] dismissed immediately. Even if [Jane Doe] found out it doesn’t matter, if the evidence is convincing enough to let us go then it’s proof she lied,” Ingalls reportedly said to the witness, who is not identified.
It was not clear what evidence Ingalls was referring to, but the witness told him, “I don’t have evidence.”
“He tried to convince me in other messages like this one that she was lying and he said that, ‘You know that she's lying And you know that we would never do this,’” the woman told investigators.
Cornell’s president addressed the controversy over the weekend after the story prompted national outcry.
In an eight-minute video message, Michael Kotlikoff described the past week as one of the most difficult in the university’s history and acknowledged troubling questions about the investigations that followed the allegations.
“My heart aches when I think of what she experienced,” Kotlikoff said. “It raises heartbreaking and troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanization and aspects of party culture, alcohol and drug use.”
Kotlikoff reaffirmed his commitment to supporting an independent review of Cornell's handling of the case called for by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and said the school's Board of Trustees would announce details next week. He also expressed support for Hochul’s decision to turn the criminal investigation over to the state attorney general.
“I want to acknowledge something that can be difficult for an institution to say,” Kotlikoff said. “We don’t have all the answers, but we are committed to investigating and finding the answers our community deserves.”
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