Local elected leaders, sexual assault survivors and advocates outside the Bronx county courthouse in New York City on Thursday. Photograph: Melissa Bender/NurPhoto/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Local elected leaders, sexual assault survivors and advocates outside the Bronx county courthouse in New York City on Thursday. Photograph: Melissa Bender/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Rape and sexual assault ‘Sadness, cynicism and deep disappointment’: the Cornell gang-rape case and the failure of #MeToo As the university and local police defend their treatment of the alleged perpetrators, women decry a familiar story
Alaina Demopoulos Sat 3 Oct 2026 15.00 CEST Last modified on Sat 3 Oct 2026 15.01 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google S tudent safety advocates in the US call the start of the fall semester at universities “the red zone”. Fraternities, sororities and off-campus bars throw parties welcoming students back to school. It’s supposed to be fun, but it can also be dangerous: more than 50% of sexual assaults that occur at colleges happen during that six- to 10-week period.
It was mid-October of 2024, during the red zone and just before a deluge of Halloween celebrations, when, a former Cornell University student says, she was gang-raped by a group of fraternity brothers. Recent attention on these allegations sparked widespread outrage this week, reviving a contentious national debate about how authorities respond to allegations of sexual assault on US college campuses.
The anonymous young woman at the center of the story – known as Jane Doe in court documents – filed a civil lawsuit last month, accusing seven men of plying her with drugs and alcohol and assaulting her over the course of seven hours at their fraternity house. The woman originally went to the house to visit a friend; she claims she arrived intoxicated and willingly took the party drug ketamine with the men. Later, she says, she became incapacitated by the drug, which is a dissociative anesthetic, while the men “commanded” her to keep snorting it.
Jane Doe also alleges that the Ivy League university’s ensuing internal investigation was too lenient toward the men. None have ever been charged with a crime. Two were expelled for their misconduct, while five were given lighter punishments: writing an essay, attending a workshop or serving a suspension. Some still attend the school. All seven men denied wrongdoing during Cornell’s investigation.
Public outcry over the case reached a breaking point on Thursday, when the New York governor Kathy Hochul stepped in to appoint a new special prosecutor to investigate the incident, which the original district attorney declined to prosecute. Now, state attorney general Leticia James will decide whether or not to take the case to a grand jury, which would decide whether there was enough evidence to charge the men with a crime.
View image in fullscreen Kathy Hochul, the New York governor, during a news conference with state attorney general Letitia James, on Friday in New York City. Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP In a statement, Cornell University defended its investigation of the incident. It closed the fraternity chapter involved and barred the group from campus. “We will continue to examine and strengthen our policies to ensure we are doing all we can to foster a culture where sexual misconduct is never tolerated, those who come forward are supported, and individuals found responsible through our processes are held accountable,” t…