The lawyer representing the alleged victim of a reported gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity is giving an update on his client’s condition amid intense scrutiny over how the university and the local district attorney allegedly failed to properly investigate the incident.
“[Jane Doe is] not well,” Thomas Giuffra, the attorney who filed the unnamed victim’s civil lawsuit in the Cornell gang rape investigation, told NBC News reporter Maggie Vespa in an interview shared on Saturday, October 3. “This has upended her life in such a tragic way.”
Giuffra continued, “ She comes from a small town. Her dream, from when she was a little girl, was to go to the Cornell [Nolan] Hotel School — this was her desire. She worked very hard — she came from an area where people were not going to Ivy League schools. This was an area where people went local or they didn’t go to school at all. And this was her dream — she went there, she was betrayed by two friends. She went to withdraw, she couldn’t withdraw without costing her parents a lot of money. She had to stay there, and then ultimately she couldn’t take it anymore — and her mother was up there constantly — and she had to leave.”
Doe claimed in a civil lawsuit filed on September 16 that she was sexually assaulted at the Chi Phi house on October 19, 2024. After a night of drinking, she claimed she was pressured to snort ketamine, smoke marijuana and drink alcohol before she was gang raped by seven fraternity brothers.
While the incident allegedly started with two fraternity brothers, more men allegedly got involved after advertising there was “free p****” in a Snapchat group chat. Doe reported the alleged incident weeks later, and none of the men faced criminal charges. Only two of the seven frat members were reportedly suspended for their involvement in the incident, while the others were ordered to write essays and attend workshops.
Doe eventually dropped out of Cornell.
“Her education is on hold, she’s had extensive mental health treatment, and she is not doing well — she’s hanging on by a string,” Giuffra continued to tell NBC News of his client’s condition as the case receives national attention. “The one positive, I will say, is the amount of support she’s seen from members of the public has been really helpful and has really helped her through this process, and frankly its made me see how good human beings can be.”
Amid a flurry of social backlash regarding the alleged gang rape, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul slammed both the Tompkins County district attorney and Cornell police while announcing on Friday, October 2, that she has directed New York Attorney General Letitia James to take over the criminal investigations into the alleged gang rape.
President Donald Trump, who was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in a civil lawsuit, slammed James and her investigation into the case while expressing he felt “badly” for the seven students accused of gang raping Doe.
“She’s totally corrupt, and I can’t imagine it,” Trump told White House reporters on Friday after he was asked about James’ appointment as special prosecutor in the case. “And I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake. Letitia James is a corrupt person.”
On Saturday, The New York Times reported that the Tompkins County district attorney declined to review additional evidence presented by campus police, according to records obtained by the outlet.
According to Cornell police investigator Jeffrey Northrop, a member of the D.A.’s staff, Jeff Huddle, “did not express interest” in the additional evidence when it was first presented, adding at the time that “criminal charges would not be pursued in the case.”
The D.A.’s original decision is now being reviewed.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
