A former Cornell University fraternity member detailed his recollection of the night a woman alleged she was gang-raped and forcibly drugged in a recorded phone call.
The woman, who is identified as “Jane Doe” in a lawsuit filed Sept. 16 in New York, alleged that seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity sexually assaulted her in October 2024 after she was invited to the fraternity house.
Three weeks after the alleged incident, Doe called Matthew Ingalls, the fraternity member who allegedly invited her to the party. Ingalls is one of the seven former students named in the lawsuit and was expelled after the university’s investigation into the matter. Doe recorded the conversation, during which she asked Ingalls to recount what he remembered about the night and help her identify the men she said were present.
Doe told Ingalls she had spent time in an emergency room and therapy following the incident, saying she suffered “so much damage” to her body and brain.
“If I wanted to take this somewhere, what y’all did would be classified as gang rape,” Doe said, according to the recording, which was obtained by ABC News. She also told Ingalls she had already consumed about 10 shots before arriving at the fraternity.
Ingalls said that Doe had told him she was sober when she arrived.
“You did tell me you were sober, by the way,” Ingalls told her. “You did. You said you hadn’t been anywhere.”
Ingalls then offered to walk Doe through his recollection of the evening.
“So you come in, say hi. We start dancing for like maybe three to five minutes, and then I pop the question,” he said, alluding to the suggestion of sexual intercourse with him and another male.
Ingalls also described the fraternity house as crowded, saying people began moving onto the balcony because there was not enough room inside.
At another point, Ingalls appeared to question whether their memories of the night were accurate.
“I have racked my brain for this mystery,” he said. “You know, it’s possible that both of us … remember this, and it’s not true.”
Doe pushed back, saying she distinctly remembered looking up and seeing numerous people around her.
“No, because I remember looking up and being like, ‘That is too many people,’” she said.
Doe told Ingalls she remembered four men in the bed and additional people standing around the room. She asked whether he remembered how some of the men entered the room and sought his help in identifying them.
The lawsuit alleged that Doe was sexually assaulted by multiple fraternity members after becoming incapacitated. A Snapchat image included in Doe’s court filing shows one of the fraternity members allegedly encouraging others to join him. Other reports have found the message included an image of Doe during the alleged assault.
The allegations have prompted renewed scrutiny of Cornell’s handling of the case.
A TIMELINE OF JANE DOE’S ALLEGATIONS OF CORNELL GANG RAPE
Matthew Van Houten, the district attorney in Tompkins County, New York, reopened the criminal investigation last week. But Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) issued an executive order transferring oversight of the criminal investigation to state Attorney General Letitia James.
Cornell’s board of trustees is expected to announce an independent review by an outside law firm into the university’s handling of the allegations.