Seven members of Cornell University’s Chi Phi fraternity have been accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old student after allegedly giving her ketamine and inviting others to join in.
The allegations are contained in a case filed this week in Manhattan Supreme Court. The woman, identified as Jane Doe, claims the incident took place in October 2024 at the fraternity house.
She alleges she had been served alcohol at a local bar before travelling alone to the house to meet a sorority sister. There, she claims, fraternity members Matthew Ingalls and Johnathan Newell pressured her to snort ketamine before sexually assaulting her.
According to the lawsuit, Newell then used a Snapchat group called “Chi Phi Actives” to invite other fraternity members upstairs, allegedly writing that there was “free p***y”. The woman claims she was unconscious as the alleged assault continued.
She further alleges that Newell poured “a line of Ketamine onto his erect penis” and ordered her to snort it. She says other men later poured lines of the drug over her body and snorted them.
The lawsuit names Ingalls, Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar as defendants.
The woman says the alleged assault caused “severe emotional and psychological distress”. She is also suing Cornell, claiming the university failed to take reasonable steps to protect her.
She says she believes a criminal investigation by the Ithaca Police Department is still under way. The woman claims Cornell’s own investigation has ended and alleges the men were “afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays to Cornell”.
