An attorney representing a Jane Doe who alleges that seven members of Cornell University’s Chi Phi fraternity drugged and sexually assaulted her has claimed that further evidence may have been dumped in Lake Cayuga.
Thomas Giuffra said additional videos and photographs could have been lost because authorities did not execute a search warrant. He made the remarks during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Mr Giuffra said investigators could have seized the fraternity members’ phones and downloaded material that might have been relevant to the allegations.
“They would have grabbed every single one of these phones of these guys. They would have downloaded all this material,” he said. “I’m confident, knowing this day and age and the group that we’re dealing with, that there were other photos, there were videos.”
The lawyer said he believed the material could now be at the “bottom of Lake Cayuga”. He alleged that those involved had removed or destroyed evidence after becoming aware there was a problem.
“Once they knew there was a problem, they cleared everything out and they got rid of it,” Mr Giuffra said.
He also said Jane Doe had received several threats from people seeking to persuade her to drop the lawsuit, describing those harassing her as “disgusting”. He had previously said that she was “not doing well” and was “under siege on social media”, where people were attempting to identify her.
