Cornell police tried to get phone records in Jane Doe’s sex assault investigation. Her lawyer says records never got to DA

By Gloria Pazmino, Holly Yan, Jessie Yeung, Isa Mudannayake, CNN

Ithaca, New York (CNN) — Newly obtained documents reviewed by CNN show Cornell University police drafted letters to wireless carriers about a week after a student now known as Jane Doe told police she had been sexually assaulted by members of the Chi Phi fraternity in 2024.

The revelation has raised more questions about what information university police shared with prosecutors before the local district attorney’s office declined to file charges in 2024. Doe’s rape allegations, described in a recently filed lawsuit, have sparked nationwide debate over how universities handle sexual assault allegations.

The drafts, addressed to Verizon and T-Mobile on November 15, 2024, said Cornell police were “investigating a sexual assault incident, wherein it is believed that the account/phone number listed below may contain evidence pertinent to the ongoing investigation.”

They said a signed warrant would be sent within 30 days and told the phone companies to “preserve all available data” associated with the accounts, including emails, text messages, phone calls, pictures and video messages.

It’s not clear whether investigators actually sent the letters to the companies, whether campus police followed up with subpoenas or whether Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten – whose office initially investigated the case – was aware of the records request by police.

CNN has asked Verizon and T-Mobile whether they received the requests from Cornell and if they complied with the request to preserve the records.

The timing of the documents suggests Cornell police investigators were actively investigating the alleged rape.

Doe’s case gained national attention after she filed a lawsuit last month against Cornell University, the Chi Phi fraternity, seven members of Chi Phi and several other entities, saying the school failed to protect her and adequately punish the students after she was allegedly sexually assaulted and drugged at Chi Phi’s fraternity house in October 2024.

Doe’s attorney told CNN his client has recorded several calls with the men alleged to have been involved.

CNN has asked the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office whether it received any phone records. CNN has also reached out to Cornell and campus police.

‘The handling of this case is horrifying,’ governor says

The university’s president released a video statement Saturday amid calls for accountability. Doe’s alleged experiences raise “heartbreaking and troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanization, and aspects of party culture, alcohol, and drug use,” he said, promising further review and answers for the community.

Records obtained by The New York Times show the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office declined to review some of the materials collected by campus police investigators after deciding not to bring charges. CNN has requested a copy of the records.

“What we have learned about the handling of this case is horrifying,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a letter obtained by CNN. “No young person who comes forward seeking help should ever be ignored or dismissed.”

Van Houten said his office never received details about Doe’s rape claims in 2024, and he only learned of the claims after they were described in the lawsuit filed last month.

Van Houten reopened the case and said a grand jury would determine whether charges should be filed. But days later, the governor announced the state Attorney General Letitia James would take over the investigation as a special prosecutor.

The district attorney said he welcomed the move.

“I support the appointment of Attorney General James and I trust that she will examine the facts and apply the law,” Van Houten said in a statement Friday. “It has become clear that we were not provided the full picture by the university.”

Doe’s attorney, Thomas Giuffra, told CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper on Sunday he hopes James will be able to get to the truth.

“She’s bringing in a lot of people who are experienced prosecutors and investigators to look into these things,” he said. “And they will get everything, and finally we will get what was done, what was said.”

But the attorney general tasked with leading the investigation is now under scrutiny herself.

A controversial social media post

Four days before she was named special prosecutor, James posted a message on social media critics said was biased in favor of Doe.

“What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable. I’m holding her in my heart and in my prayers,” the attorney general wrote on September 28. “To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand with you.”

A lawyer for one of the seven former fraternity members called for James to recuse herself from the case.

“The issue is not her compassion toward someone alleging sexual assault,” attorney Andrew Miltenberg said. “The concern is that her statements could reasonably be understood as accepting that the alleged conduct occurred before she assumed responsibility for determining what the evidence establishes.”

In making the assignment, the governor said she is confident James will lead a fair and thorough investigation. And the special prosecutor released a statement Monday echoing that sentiment.

“My office enforces our state’s laws to protect all New Yorkers. I am committed to leading a comprehensive investigation they can trust, guided only by the facts, the evidence, and the law,” James said.

What did the county district attorney have access to?

Much of the scrutiny has centered on how Cornell and the Tompkins County DA handled the initial investigation after Doe went to campus police to report the alleged rape in 2024, weeks after the incident.

At the time, campus police held an hourslong interview with Doe, which was “condensed” from an approximately 120-page transcript into a six-page statement, which she signed, according to the Times, citing documents it obtained.

In November 2024, the district attorney’s office declined to review any additional evidence beyond the six-page statement signed by Doe, including more interviews gathered by the campus police department, records obtained by the Times show.

Prosecutors did not express interest in the additional evidence because they had decided, based on Doe’s statement, that “Criminal charges would not be pursued in this case,” a Cornell police investigator wrote in a note documenting the call, according to the Times.

When Doe first went to campus police, authorities wrote she reported “she was recently raped by 8-10 men at the Chi Phi fraternity house,” according to documents reviewed by ABC News. The phrase does not appear in the six-page statement sent to prosecutors.

The statement prosecutors reviewed did not include a separate, extensive transcript of her interview with campus police in which she said, “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped,” according to CNN affiliate WCBS, which obtained the document.

After leaving her own handwritten corrections, Doe signed off on the six-page statement, which was then sent to the DA’s office, according to the Times.

“Multiple prosecutors and criminal investigators reviewed Jane Doe’s statement and correctly determined the alleged facts as set forth in the statement do not constitute a crime,” the DA’s office wrote in a news release.

Cornell also held its own formal Title IX investigation, which included more than 50 interviews, including with all of the men accused of wrongdoing, except one who declined to be interviewed, according to a heavily redacted 99-page document summarizing the panel’s findings.

CNN has not seen the Title IX filings, which are generally confidential and restricted to the parties involved.

The information was never seen by the district attorney’s office, Van Houten said. He said the only materials prosecutors received were the six-page statement and Snapchat messages exchanged by fraternity members during the incident.

While the behavior of some Chi Phi fraternity members was “without question disgusting and morally reprehensible,” Van Houten said multiple prosecutors and criminal investigators determined the events as described in Doe’s 2024 account did not constitute a crime.

A Cornell spokesperson told CNN last week the school had “shared all investigatory information” with the DA’s office in 2024, which matched Cornell’s initial public statement. But the school later changed its statement to say police “shared the victim’s sworn statement and the Snapchat screenshot” with the DA’s office.

“I don’t credit much about what DA Van Houten did during the course of this investigation,” Giuffra told CNN Sunday. “I think DA Van Houten had an agenda. I think that agenda was to protect Cornell University.”

The district attorney sharply rebutted the claim. “He is absolutely wrong,” Van Houten said.

The district attorney’s investigation has drawn criticism for relying on the report from campus police to determine whether to pursue charges.

“I can’t imagine having an initial interview with a survivor like this without having somebody there with that specialized training who understands how memory works, how somebody processes trauma, how that affects the narrative that they tell. That fact that, at least according to her attorney, that didn’t happen is really appalling,” former federal prosecutor Berit Berger said.

“You have to do a thorough investigation here to see: Did she consent to every act with every individual that’s alleged to have assaulted her?” Berger said. “The fact that they didn’t go through this really comprehensive investigation to figure out, was consent given at each stage is really a tragedy for the survivor.”

Doe went to Cornell Health a few days after the alleged rape to be treated for a urinary tract infection (UTI) and to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases, where she told the healthcare provider she had contracted the UTI in a “traumatic way,” according to her attorney.

In response, a healthcare professional advised Doe to “speak with somebody” and failed to offer an exam to document any injuries and failed to suggest a rape kit test, Giuffra said.

‘I feel like bait’: How Doe processed the events

Giuffra told CNN he believes Doe did not consent to any of the sexual encounters and was initially “in denial” before starting to feel ashamed and finally realizing she had been raped.

“I felt like bait. I felt like lions around me. It was just a totally debilitating place to be in,” Doe told university investigators months after her alleged assault at the Chi Phi fraternity, according to a Cornell disciplinary hearing panel’s partially redacted decision obtained by CNN.

On the day she returned home, she reportedly told her two roommates she had consumed ketamine and had sex with multiple men. But according to one of the roommates, she did not yet use the words “rape” or “assault.” She appeared to be in shock and not “really understanding the gravity of what she was saying,” one roommate told investigators.

In the following days, Doe communicated with at least two of the men she later accused of sexual assault, one of whom apologized “for how things went down.” Doe replied to the man reassuringly, the Times reported, saying “non (sic) of the sexual stuff was illegal.”

Rumors began spreading on campus, leaving her feeling humiliated and fearful. On an online forum, she saw comments about Chi Phi brothers drugging and gang raping a sophomore, which was the “first time I had ever heard the narrative change that I wasn’t a whore and that I was assaulted,” Doe said to investigators, according to documents obtained by the Times.

By November 3, Doe texted one of the men, explicitly saying 90% of what happened was not consensual. Several days later, she went to an emergency room and requested a rape kit, the Times reported, citing the documents. Then, she went to Cornell police.

“Ms. Doe’s internal processing went from denial to shame and ultimately acceptance that she had been raped by people that she thought were her friends,” Giuffra told CNN Thursday. “Her reactions were a textbook reaction to trauma.”

Trauma impedes the brain’s ability to record events that occur, which can lead to memory gaps, Sandi Johnson, senior legislative policy counsel with anti-sexual assault organization RAINN, told CNN.

While CNN has been unable to view the entire document summarizing the panel’s findings, it describes the heavy presence of ketamine at the fraternity house on the night of the alleged assault, as well as Doe’s reported state of mind at certain points.

In interviews with university investigators, Doe recounted the effects of ketamine as “vague consciousness,” according to the panel’s decision.

“You look like an operating human being … You don’t look dead or asleep necessarily. So, lights are on, but nobody’s home. Your brain is not functioning at its proper level,” she said.

Doe spoke with fraternity members after the alleged assault

Three weeks after the alleged incident, Doe asked the fraternity member who invited her to the house that night, “Do you remember how any of these guys walked in?” her phone recordings reviewed by ABC News indicate.

Doe started recording her phone calls after the alleged assault so she could have a “reference to the limited information she was receiving,” as she sought to process what happened, Giuffra said.

The fraternity member made no mention of his group chat invitation, ABC News reported, citing the recording. Instead, he told Doe: “The door was just unlocked. … The party was sort of like crowded. … There was nowhere else to go.”

“If I wanted to take this somewhere, what y’all did would be classified as gang rape,” Doe told him, ABC News reported. Doe’s recorded phone calls to at least three of the fraternity brothers were later turned over to university investigators, ABC said.

The Cornell disciplinary panel’s decision reviewed by CNN also cites a recorded phone call Doe had with one of the men named in the lawsuit in early November 2024, where they discussed ketamine and other substances they took as the initial sexual activity began that night in October.

One of the men Doe has accused of sexual assault reportedly sent her this text message: “I just wanted to apologize for how things went down the other night,” according to records obtained by the Times and corroborated by Doe’s attorney. The sender said he and another male allegedly involved felt terrible and too under the influence of drugs and alcohol to “shut it down and kick people out before it got way out of hand.”

What the accused men have said

The men named in the lawsuit have denied any wrongdoing.

The Times said four of the Chi Phi fraternity members acknowledged having sexual contact with Doe but said their interactions had been consensual. The others said they did not have sexual contact with Doe.

CNN has interviewed one attorney, has a statement from another and ABC News reported on a statement from a third. All have denied the allegations. CNN is working to see if the other four accused have legal representation.

According to the Times, citing the documents, the majority of the men said they did not think the woman appeared intoxicated and all six men interviewed denied wrongdoing. One said he was “a victim of sexual misconduct” because the woman had given him oral sex when he was “too incapacitated” to consent, the Times reported, citing the documents.

The men’s accounts differed, contradicted each other, and were contrary to the statements given by the woman to Cornell police in 2024, according to the documents reviewed by the Times.

The panel decision document obtained by CNN echoes some of the reporting on the men’s accounts, including that at least one said he could not tell the victim was under the influence.

One of the men said he and another went to the room after seeing the “free p*ssy” message sent in a Snapchat group chat titled “Chi Phi Actives,” to see if everything was OK, telling investigators, “I was kind of befuddled” after reading the text, according to the panel’s findings. He said he conversed with Doe and asked one of the men and Doe if they were “all right,” to which both responded affirmatively.

One of the men accused, whose name was redacted, told the panel, “I was sorry that maybe if it wasn’t consensual and she was victimized, I was sorry for not stopping it. And that I’m sorry I couldn’t tell if she was under the influence (…) just sorry that I felt like if something actually bad happened, I didn’t stop it,” according to the decision document.

University president promises answers, greater transparency

While the university does not have “all the answers” to questions surrounding the initial investigation, Cornell’s president Michael Kotlikoff – who was the university’s interim president at the time of the incident – said in his statement it is committed to investigating and finding them.

Cornell’s board of trustees will announce an independent review into the handling of the 2024 case by an outside law firm, he said, adding, “we owe it to Jane Doe and to survivors of assault to get this right.”

The criminal investigation has been turned over to the New York Attorney General by the state’s governor, a move Kotlikoff said the university supported. Cornell also previously told CNN it supported the decision.

Kotlikoff also backed legislative efforts to change New York’s sexual assault law, which can make it nearly impossible for survivors to seek justice if they voluntarily consumed alcohol or drugs before an assault.

In Doe’s September complaint, she stated prior to arriving at the fraternity house she was “visibly intoxicated, as she had consumed about 10 standard drinks within the past 3 hours.”

While the state criminal investigation and outside review are underway, the university will work to strengthen programs surrounding sexual assault prevention and education, mental health and substance use, Kotlikoff added.

The school’s own survey in 2025 showed 35% of undergraduate female students at Cornell reported experiences of nonconsensual sexual contact since entering the university.

Cornell students have expressed anger, distrust and disappointment at a perceived lack of transparency from the school following the alleged assault.

Addressing these frustrations, he said, “we will make a greater effort to explain what we can, to provide context about the actions Cornell has taken, and to be more transparent” within the confines of legal and policy limits.

Kotlikoff also signaled support for reviewing the role of Greek organizations in campus life. “We will reengage students, alumni, and other members of our community to examine how we preserve what is valuable about Greek life while strengthening individual accountability, transparency, and a culture in which every member understands their responsibility to protect the safety and well-being of others,” he said.

About one-third of Cornell’s undergraduate student body belongs to one of the more than 50 fraternities and sororities at the school.

Demonstrators gathered on campus Monday afternoon for a “Justice for Survivors” protest.

Students held signs reading “Justice for every Jane Doe”; “Cornell admin betrays survivors resign now”; and “This is feminine rage. Do you hear us yet?”

They also chanted “shame” and “resign” while speakers demanded change.

Other groups are planning to host a seven-hour sit-in on Wednesday “in solidarity with Jane Doe,” according to social media flyers for the event.

Early Monday, anonymous activists smashed a glass door and painted messages on the walls of the administration building on the Cornell University campus, which read “smash the patriarchy” and “at Cornell rapists are protected, protesters are expelled,” The Cornell Daily Sun reported.

University officials told CNN the vandalism is under investigation.

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CNN’s Maria Sole Campinoti, Kara Scannell, Chris Boyette, Jason Carroll, Danya Gainor, Taylor Galgano, Lauren Mascarenhas, Hanna Park, Brittany Shammas, Alex Stambaugh, Linh Tran, Jake Tapper, Avni Trivedi, Cindy Von Quednow and Jeff Winter contributed to this report.