Dramatic video shows the moment angry Cornell University students confronted a fraternity member accused in a lawsuit of participating in an alleged sexual assault.
Gillio Lopes was approached by several women at the Ivy League campus, with one asking him pointedly: “Are you not embarrassed to be here?”
“After all this time, after the case comes out, your name and face are out, are you not ashamed that you’re still here?” the woman continued.
She also said the woman who accused Lopes had been forced to leave college because of the case. Lopes replied: “You know there is a reason for that, right?”
“I’m not going to talk about all of this with you,” he said. “I don’t even know you.”
The student responded: “Yeah, and I hope you never will, because you’re a disgusting person. Everyone at Cornell is ashamed of you.”
Lopes and six other men—Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar—were named last month in a civil lawsuit alleging that they sexually assaulted a woman identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe at their fraternity house in October 2024. The men deny the allegations and maintain that the encounter with Jane Doe was consensual.
No criminal charges have been filed against any of the men. The lawsuit nevertheless triggered widespread outrage after it alleged that fraternity group-chat messages on the night in question promoted “free p***y” to members.
In the video, the student called the alleged group-chat messages “f***ing disgusting.” Lopes answered: “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
Dramatic footage shows angry Cornell students confronting a fraternity member accused in a civil lawsuit of participating in an alleged sexual assault
Seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity were accused last month of sexually assaulting a woman identified as Jane Doe at the fraternity house in October 2024
The confrontation spread rapidly online. In a statement, Lopes’s attorney argued that his client was being singled out over allegations that have not been proven.
“(Jane Doe’s) counsel has masterfully manipulated the media narrative, and the consequences are now very real,” the attorney said.
“Mr Lopes was publicly accosted and is being condemned before the evidence has been fully heard.”
Lopes and the other defendants have not been criminally charged in connection with Jane Doe’s civil lawsuit. Governor Kathy Hochul appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor to investigate the claims. Lopes’s attorney has urged James to step aside, citing comments in which she described the allegations as fact and said she “stood with” Jane Doe.
Cornell’s Title IX investigation, conducted in spring 2025, resulted in two men being expelled and two others being suspended. Another had already graduated and could not be disciplined, while two were found not responsible.
Lopes was among those suspended, according to disciplinary summaries first reported by The New York Times.
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The documents said a three-member panel imposed a three-semester suspension followed by two years of probation. Lopes has returned to campus in recent months.
The absence of criminal charges, along with criticism of the university’s handling of the accused fraternity members, has intensified scrutiny surrounding the lawsuit. Protests were held this week at Cornell’s campus in Ithaca, New York.
Protests broke out on Cornell’s campus this week as backlash over the case intensified
Demonstrations were held on Cornell’s campus in Ithaca, upstate New York
Amid backlash at Cornell over the handling of the case, the school’s faculty senate said Monday it planned to vote on a rare resolution of no confidence in Cornell’s administrators.
The faculty motion would not force Kotlikoff or other leaders from their roles, but is a symbolic move intended to heap pressure on Cornell’s administration.
A draft of the resolution said, ‘The faculty senate has no confidence in the ability of the central administration to effectively address the ongoing crisis of sexual assault at Cornell University’, reports The New York Times.
Despite the controversy, at a student assembly meeting on Monday, Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff pushed back on accusations that Cornell had muddied the investigation into the alleged sexual assault at the fraternity house.
‘We’re not hiding anything at Cornell,’ he told the audience, per the Cornell Daily Sun.
The embattled president insisted that the Title IX investigation that led to two of the fraternity brothers being expelled was ‘very professional’, and said expulsion was the ‘severest sanction’ it could impose.
‘You will hear proposals from us going forward around what we’re going to do to try and improve this culture and address this problem.’
A protester holds a sign calling for Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff to lose his job over the handling of the case
Kotlikoff hosted the meeting while protesters held a demonstration outside the building on Cornell’s Ho Plaza, where students showed their support for the alleged victim.
Protesters were seen with signs calling to ‘Fire Kotlikoff’ and ‘Ban the Frats’, as another read: ‘Put rapists in jail – not in our classes.’
A group of organizers put forward a list of demands to Cornell administrators to respond to the controversy, including the immediate expulsion of all seven accused Chi Phi brothers.
The group also demanded a rewriting of Cornell’s sexual assault policies, an external investigation into the handling of the case, mandatory sexual assault trainings on campus, and compliance with New York’s Enough Is Enough law.
The Enough Is Enough law requires New York universities and colleges to adopt strict policies on issues including sexual violence and stalking.