Excerpts of text messages reportedly exchanged by a defendant in the Cornell University gang-rape case and the woman who claims she was assaulted were published by CBS News on Tuesday. This development follows an announcement by New York prosecutors a day earlier that they were reopening a criminal investigation.
The texts were reportedly sent within days of the alleged October 2024 assault at a campus fraternity house. A female student said she was drugged and repeatedly raped over seven hours by multiple men, who were alerted to her presence via Snapchat.
In one message, an unnamed male defendant reportedly apologised to the woman for “how things went down” and stated his memory of events was “kinda fuzzy”. He also said he and another male regretted being too intoxicated to “shut it down and kick people out before it got way out of hand”.
The woman, who was 20 at the time of the alleged assault, replied that her memory was “super clouded too” and that they were all intoxicated. According to CBS, she also wrote: “non[e] of the sexual stuff was illegal”, and later suggested they smoke together again, “but like leave out the extra 5 billion men and ketamine”.
Matthew Van Houten, the Tompkins County District Attorney, stated on Monday that his office reopened the dormant investigation due to allegations he described as “dramatically different” from those initially made by the alleged victim. He also defended his initial decision not to seek charges, stating the woman's November 2024 statement did not allege she was drugged against her will or gang-raped, but rather described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual.
A civil lawsuit filed by the woman earlier in September alleges seven men assaulted her at Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity house. Two of the alleged perpetrators were expelled after an internal Cornell investigation, while five others were allowed to resume studies after writing an essay, attending a workshop, or serving a short suspension. None were arrested or charged.