DA reopens student’s allegation she was raped by 7 men at Cornell in 2024

( NewsNation ) — Prosecutors will take a second look at a case brought by a former Cornell University student that alleges seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity drugged her with ketamine and sexually assaulted her for hours.

The anonymous student filed a lawsuit regarding the 2024 incident earlier this month, in which she says she had gone to visit a friend at the house while intoxicated when two frat members pressured her into taking the drug before the assault took place.

She reported the incident to Cornell police around three weeks later.

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said his office plans to present the case to a grand jury after the civil lawsuit raised allegations he says were “dramatically different” than the woman’s statement to police two years ago, which he says did not mention she was drugged or that she did not consent to engage in sexual activities, according to ABC News .

In an interview with ABC, Van Houten said his office didn’t independently investigate the allegations.

He said a group chat included in the lawsuit, in which the student claims frat members discussed the alleged assault, was never provided to his office in 2024.

The student’s attorney called the messages a “critical piece of evidence” that authorities had at the time.

Defense attorney: Jane Doe claims are ‘selfishly false’

An attorney for one defendant, Scott Kretzschmar, denies the allegations and says the incident did not happen at all. He called the student’s claims “selfishly false,” according to ABC.

Cornell said in a Sept. 21 statement that its Office of Civil Rights and Office of Student Conduct separately investigated the case in 2024 and that Chi Phi’s chapter is still barred from campus as a result. Two of the seven men who were allegedly involved were expelled, with the others receiving lesser discipline, including workshops and essays, according to ABC.

In a new statement Monday, the university said it “supports the decision of the Tompkins County District Attorney (DA) to provide an opportunity for the victim’s story, in the 2024 Chi Phi fraternity Sexual Assault case, to be heard by a criminal grand jury.”

The case has also caught the attention of actress Florence Pugh , who shared on social media that the allegations left her “uneasy and sick and anxious” and called on men to speak up.