How to Get Away With Rape?
At Cornell University, an Essay Can Help

TW: This article discusses rape and sexual violence.

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: according to Cornell University, writing an essay was not the “sole consequence” imposed following the alleged rape. Some of the accused students were temporarily suspended, and two of the seven were reportedly expelled.

Maybe try handcuffs and jail.

Whatever consequences were imposed, they seem painfully inadequate when placed next to what the seven men are accused of doing to a woman identified in court documents as Jane Doe. While several of them continued pursuing their degrees, she left Cornell University. Two years later, she told The Cornell Daily Sun that she still carries the weight of what happened every day and every night.

Two years later?

Yes. Jane Doe says she was raped in October 2024. To this day, none of the seven men she accused are in prison, and her attempts to hold them accountable through the courts have yet to result in a successful judgment. So how did we get here?

Jane Doe filed her first lawsuit on November 8, 2024. Cornell University and local law enforcement have maintained that they investigated the incident and followed the relevant procedures.

If this is what following protocol looks like, perhaps the protocol deserves some attention too. And, as happens so often in cases of alleged sexual violence, questions about the victim’s behaviour quickly entered the conversation. One point repeatedly raised was that Jane Doe initially described her participation as voluntary and consensual.

There is some crucial context missing from that sentence. According to her allegations, she was intoxicated and repeatedly pressured or forced to consume ketamine during the encounter, including, she alleges, from an erect penis.

But even beyond the details of this particular case, consent is not as simple as finding a single sentence someone said at one moment in time and treating it as definitive. Intoxication can fundamentally affect a person’s ability to consent. Fear, coercion, shock and trauma complicate things further. Survivors may also take months or years to understand and articulate what happened to them.

So, who does Jane Doe accuse?

Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzsch, names that have since circulated online under the label “Cornell 7,” which sounds disturbingly more like the name of a superhero gang than seven men accused of sexual violence.

All seven were members of Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity.

The allegations contained in the lawsuit are disturbing. What Jane Doe says she endured that night, until approximately 5:45 a.m., is difficult to read.

Then there are the messages.

According to material cited in the lawsuit, a Snapchat group called “Chi Phi Actives” contained a message from Johnathan Newell reading, “Free p*ssy.” Someone responded: “I fucking love Chi Phi.”Another alleged message, attributed to Scott Kretzschmar, reads: “The alumni shit is not a bit. First person pov not a bit.” Translated from fraternity-boy slang: whatever the alumni had apparently said about what happened at Chi Phi, Kretzsch seemed to suggest it wasn’t a joke.

Which leaves an uncomfortable question hanging over the entire case:

If people were already talking about what happened inside Chi Phi before Jane Doe, what exactly were they talking about?

And how many women came before her?

by Felicitas Wieder