Former Cornell student sues after alleged gang rape

The incident happened two years ago now. The former Cornell student describes the night as follows in her indictment: The then 20-year-old, who is referred to as Jane Doe in the US media, first drank a lot of alcohol in a bar in her own fraternity house and then went to the house of another fraternity. There, a friend and another fraternity member urged her to drink more alcohol and snort ketamine powder.

After that, she was no longer able to make decisions, says her lawyer Thomas Giuffra. "One of the guys started dancing with her. It was a normal frat party at first. And then someone took the whole thing in a different direction. Up into a room and that's where it happened," said Giuffra. Several members of the association knew about it. "Several people took part. They literally filled them with ketamine."

Accusation: Invitation to rape via group chat

In this condition, the student was abused and raped by several men for hours. According to the lawsuit, one of them posted a Snapchat message in a group chat of the fraternity and invited other men to join in the rape.

The fact that they sent an invitation to 57 men to rape a woman and no one did anything to prevent it was terrible, says Giuffra. He's never seen anything like it. The young woman reported the incident to Cornell campus police at the time. In the United States, it is common for universities to have their own police departments. Cornell then launched an internal investigation.

The former student now accuses the university of not punishing the men sufficiently back then. Only two of the accused were expelled from the university, others escaped with lighter sentences. "Two were suspended or expelled, the others received a suspension. They had to write essays and that was shocking to me," said Giuffra.

Cornell rejects criticism of lenient punishment

The university contradicts the representation. There were a number of sanctions against the men, which cannot be specifically named for data protection reasons. No one was able to avoid punishment simply by writing essays. In addition, the special student association at the university was also excluded.

The lawyer for one of the accused told CNN that his client was innocent and that he had not even touched the plaintiff. The responsible district attorney did not file a lawsuit two years ago. The student described the events clearly differently at the time, explains District Attorney Matthew van Houten. "She admits that she knowingly and voluntarily consumed drugs and alcohol. She does not allege that she was forced to perform any actions."

Wide wave of outrage in the USA

Apparently there were no photos of the group chats at the time. The district attorney's office admits that the agency relied exclusively on campus police reports at the time. There was no separate, independent investigation. Victim advocate Giuffra criticizes that the case should have been led by someone who specializes in rape cases.

The case sparked a widespread wave of outrage in the United States. The focus is also on the question of how universities deal with reports of sexual assault. Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also makes serious allegations against Cornell. "The fact that the young woman had to give up her education while these men were protected by an institution and given a degree as a reward - never again." After new evidence became known through the civil lawsuit, the public prosecutor's office now wants to reopen the case.