Two New Witnesses Challenge Alleged Rape Account At Cornell

Two new witnesses have stepped forward to challenge the account given by a woman who says she was gang-raped at Cornell University. One is a man, the other a woman. They both claim the accuser did not look drunk on the night of the alleged attack. They also say she showed no signs of distress immediately after it happened.

The unnamed man was working as a DJ at the Chi Phi fraternity house in Ithaca, New York. The party took place in October 2024. His girlfriend was there too. Transcripts from interviews obtained by TMZ show the DJ lived in the same room where the alleged assault occurred. He is also a member of the now-defunct fraternity. The accuser has been labeled Jane Doe to protect her identity. She has not sued the DJ.

According to the interview records, the DJ told investigators that Jane Doe did not appear intoxicated at all. His girlfriend added she looked fine in the aftermath. Speaking to police in November 2024, the DJ said he entered his room and found one of the accused men, Jonathan Newell, vomiting into a bucket. Jane Doe was helping him then. She told him repeatedly that Newell was okay. She even seemed eager to get him out of his own bedroom.

The DJ later returned to find multiple people in the room with Jane Doe. He said she was not undressed and was speaking clearly to others there. On a scale where 10 is fully drunk, he noted she looked like a one or two. She appeared very coherent while talking. Afterward, the DJ went to McDonald's with another accused man named Gillio Lopez before coming back to find the room had emptied out.

The next day, the DJ reported that four of the accused men were discussing 'consensual sex' involving Jane Doe. These included Newell, Lopes, Matthew Ingalls and Winston Lee. He told police she did not show any desire to leave the previous evening's party. Meanwhile, the DJ's unidentified girlfriend shared her memories with cops in December 2024.

She described the night beginning with a threesome between Jane Doe, Matthew Ingalls and Jonathan Newell. This woman was the first female eyewitness to what happened at this Hawaii-themed fraternity party. She told police that everyone involved looked 'very calm' on the evening of the alleged attack. She also stated the encounter seemed 'consensual because no one looked visibly distressed.'

She said she began to worry about Jane Doe as she heard more details. The girlfriend felt 'kinda guilty' for not helping Jane Doe sooner. She was 'confused' by people constantly moving in and out of the bedroom all night. During her interview, she noted it did not 'sound like something good' happened inside. At one point she saw four or five men in the room with Doe at once.

The local district attorney declined to file criminal charges following this incident. Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit in September 2026 instead. Ingalls, Newell, Lee, Lopez and three other men named Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar all deny the civil allegations of rape. None have been charged with a crime so far.

Messages sent by Jane Doe suggesting nothing that happened was 'illegal' have surfaced recently. Her attorney Thomas Giuffra said she suffered a delayed reaction to the assault he says his client endured. It took her time to realize she had been assaulted, according to him.

Doe claimed the night changed when Newell allegedly posted in a fraternity Snapchat group that there was 'free p***y' upstairs. In a civil lawsuit filed last month, Doe said the sexual assault lasted seven hours straight. She said it started around 11pm and went until about 5:45am the next day.

Text messages obtained by TMZ show she replied to her roommate at the Delta Delta Delta sorority at 3:05am. This was roughly half an hour after multiple men snorted ketamine off her body, according to her claim. She said she was too inebriated to process what was happening then. Her roommate asked if she was coming home that night. Doe replied 'idk,' which stands for 'I don't know.'

One of the accused men now argues this text proves she could read and respond to messages. He claims she was not as drunk or high as she says. But in a written statement to Cornell police, the alleged victim said she arrived at the fraternity house at an 'about a five out of 10 level of intoxication.' She reached that state after taking several shots of alcohol with her sorority sisters and getting a mixed drink at a bar in downtown Ithaca, New York.

The bar has flatly denied any wrongdoing since the incident broke. At roughly 1:42 a.m., Jonathan Newell allegedly posted to a fraternity Snapchat group that there was 'free p***y' upstairs. By about 2:30 a.m., other members of the group chat started asking what was happening in the room, and Ingalls reportedly replied with the words, 'Boys, come whip it out.'

The sexual encounter went on until approximately 5:45 a.m., when Jane Doe eventually fell asleep in one of the rooms at the fraternity house. Back inside that bedroom, she said men started snorting drugs off her body while she was feeling extremely tired and covering her face with her hands. She also stated she engaged in a threesome with defendants Matthew Ingalls and Jonathan Newell before the interaction spiraled out of control as more fraternity members entered the room.

Cornell officials launched a months-long probe into Jane Doe's allegations. At least 12 formal hearings took place between January and May 2025, during which faculty and staff reviewed the evidence. In the end, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten decided not to file charges against any of the seven men, all of whom have denied any wrongdoing. Instead, Ingalls and his frat brother Jonathan Newell were both expelled from campus, according to Jane Doe's legal filing.

Two others faced suspension and disciplinary probation. A third man who had graduated by the time punishments were handed out was barred from campus. The final two men were ordered to take courses on sexual harassment, social media use, and bystander intervention. They were also told to write 'reflection papers,' according to the lawsuit. Both of them said they were only in the room with Jane Doe for five minutes, but the alleged victim claimed in her lawsuit that they snorted ketamine off her body.