Cornell rape accuser’s attorney says the school and law enforcement failed a young woman

The attorney representing a former Cornell University student who said she was gang-raped for hours in 2024 after she was pressured to take ketamine decried the initial investigation and accused both law enforcement officials and the school of failing his client.

“She was a young woman who went to Cornell with high hopes, thought that this was her dream come true, and then that didn’t happen,” Thomas P. Giuffra told NBC News on Monday. “Now she’s not in college. She’s not pursuing her goals, and she’s just trying to hang on.”

In a written statement Monday, the woman, identified only as Jane Doe, said she hopes “to recover from this trauma but it is extremely difficult. It affects every aspect of my life. It will haunt me and be part of me the rest of my life.”

In a civil lawsuit filed this month, Doe alleges that Chi Phi fraternity brothers sexually assaulted her and that one sent a message encouraging other members to participate in the attack.

The fraternity chapter was subsequently barred from campus, but no one was criminally charged. According to the lawsuit, some of the students were able to “mitigate their conduct” by writing essays to…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business