Newly surfaced video shows two Chi Phi fraternity members telling investigators that the sexual activity at the center of an alleged Cornell gang rape was consensual.
The woman identified in court documents as Jane Doe filed a lawsuit last month, alleging that multiple male students sexually assaulted her two years ago after pressuring her to consume alcohol and drugs.
The two fraternity brothers are not among those accused in the lawsuit. Their faces were blurred and their names withheld, but both told police the sexual activity involved “consenting adults.”
In a recorded interview obtained by ABC News, one brother said: “What people were saying was that there was like multiple consenting adults in this room.”
A second brother similarly stated: “There was consensual act that took place.”
The investigating officer challenged the men, asking how they could know that everyone involved had consented to sexual activity.
“Dude, I was a college kid. I get it. In college I wouldn’t have been like, ‘oh, that was a sick consensual act last night.’ Right? I guess how did they know it was consensual?” the officer said.
The second brother replied: “I mean, I can’t recall exactly what was said, but, yeah, I mean, they – they said that they had sex with her, I guess.”
In recorded footage obtained by ABC News, one Chi Phi member said people had described “multiple consenting adults” being in the room.
A second brother said a consensual act had occurred, adding that he could not remember exactly what was said but believed the men had told him they had sex with her.
Jane Doe alleges in her lawsuit that multiple Chi Phi members sexually assaulted her two years ago after pressuring her to drink alcohol and take drugs at the fraternity house.
According to the civil lawsuit filed in September, Doe said she was gang raped at the now-defunct Chi Phi fraternity house on October 19, 2024. She named Umar Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Noris and Scott Kretzschmar as the men involved.
Doe alleges that the seven men engaged in sexual acts with her while she was “completely incapacitated” and unable to consent. She said the ordeal continued until about 5:45 a.m., when she lost consciousness.
The lawsuit also alleges that the men manipulated her into taking ketamine and consuming alcohol that night. All of the men have either denied the allegations or maintained that the sexual activity was consensual.
Doe, who was 20 and a Cornell sophomore at the time, reported the alleged assault to Cornell police in November 2024, about three weeks after she said it occurred.
Campus police investigated and forwarded a summary of their findings to the district attorney’s office, which relied on that information in deciding not to file criminal charges. Cornell also conducted a separate Title IX investigation.
No criminal charges have been filed. The Chi Phi chapter was shut down, while Cornell has said it expelled some students and suspended others.
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Ingalls later alleged that he, rather than Doe, had been sexually assaulted, claiming he was too intoxicated to consent to sexual intercourse.
In a February 2025 email to Cornell’s Title IX investigator, Ingalls accused the university of “entrapment” and suggested that he would file his own complaint against Doe.
Jane Doe alleges that she was gang raped on October 19, 2024, after Umar Matthew Ingalls invited her to a party at the Chi Phi fraternity house.
The accuser’s lawsuit included alleged messages on Snapchat of Chi Phi fraternity members apparently discussing the incident and advertising ‘free p***y’
Ingalls was expelled from the school along with Newell, who engaged in a threesome with Jane Doe and Ingalls and allegedly struck the victim.
Suspensions and disciplinary probation orders were also handed down to Lee and Lopes, according to records obtained by The New York Times.
Both men were also ordered not to contact the alleged victim, and were required to study sexual harassment and write reflection papers.
Meanwhile, Sarabia was barred from campus for three years. He had already graduated from the school by the time of the disciplinary panel’s ruling in March 2025.
The other two men, Norris and Kretzschmar, were ordered not to contact Jane Doe, to study sexual harassment, social media use and bystander intervention and to write ‘reflection papers.’
They were not part of the alleged attack, but were accused of entering the room after Newell allegedly posted in a fraternity Snapchat group that there was ‘free p***y’ upstairs.
None of the men involved in the alleged assault were ever charged with any wrongdoing, as Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten concluded there was a lack of evidence based on Jane Doe’s statement to police at the time.
His office has since reopened the case, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul has appointed Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor.
Footage obtained by ABC News shows the room where the alleged gang rape is said to have occurred. Doe claimed that the seven men engaged in sexual acts with her while she was ‘completely incapacitated’ and without her consent
Meanwhile, officials at Cornell University announced Tuesday they have hired former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to review the school’s handling of the case and its broader sexual assault policies.
The probe will cover Cornell’s ‘policies, practices and resources across the full range of prevention and response,’ university officials said.
That includes examining how reports are received and investigated, how hearings and disciplinary decisions are handled, as well as the role and response of campus police and its coordination with other law enforcement agencies and prosecutors and even oversight of fraternities and sororities on campus.
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