Cornell police made a drug related arrest at the Chi Phi fraternity house nearly 22 hours before a former student says she was drugged and sexually assaulted there, according to campus crime records first reported by The Cornell Daily Sun.
According to an archived page of the Cornell University Police Department’s daily crime log, officers responded to a call at the house shortly after 1 a.m. on October 19, 2024. They made a drug related arrest and referred a person to Cornell’s Office of Student Conduct.
Later that night, around 11 p.m., is when Jane Doe says she arrived at the house. In a civil lawsuit filed last month against the university and seven fraternity members, she alleges she was sexually assaulted over several hours that night while under the influence of ketamine, alcohol and marijuana.
The crime log does not name the person who was arrested or identify the drugs involved, and it does not establish any connection between the arrest and what Jane Doe alleges happened hours later. NBC News and CBS News have since reviewed the same records.
Cornell’s police department is part of the university, not an outside agency, which means the school’s own officers documented drug activity at Chi Phi the morning before the alleged assault. The Sun also reported that the chapter was not placed on interim suspension before it held a second registered party that night.
The chapter was suspended on November 8, 2024, the day Jane Doe’s report of the assault was logged, about 20 days after the drug arrest. A hearing panel decision from Cornell’s Title IX investigation, released recently, also noted that someone had overdosed at Chi Phi.
The Sun said it has asked campus police to explain how its arrest and referral process works and when the university learned of the arrest.
Police records reviewed by NBC News show campus police spoke with multiple witnesses and received anonymous tips, but the information was never sent to the local prosecutor to decide whether to bring charges. The Sun also reported that Cornell changed a page on its website, removing a statement that “all investigatory information” had been shared with the district attorney’s office.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has said he based his decision not to pursue the case on Jane Doe’s initial six page statement to police, which he argued did not describe a crime. Her attorney, Thomas Giuffra, says authorities failed to investigate thoroughly and judged the case based on her statement that she consented to parts of the night.
Governor Kathy Hochul has since appointed Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor, and James says there is now an active criminal investigation. Cornell has agreed to an independent outside review of how it handled the case. In a video statement Saturday, Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff said the university “must do better.”
No criminal charges have been filed against any of the seven men.
