Cornell campus police made drug arrest at Chi Phi fraternity house hours before alleged gang rape
Campus police at Cornell University in New York made a drug arrest at the embattled Chi Phi fraternity house on campus less than 24 hours before seven former members are accused in a new civil lawsuit of gang raping a female classmate, according to the school's crime blotter.
The Cornell Daily Sun, an independent campus newspaper at the Ivy League school, resurfaced the daily crime log entry in a new report over the weekend.
Campus police responded to the university-owned frat house around 1 a.m. on Oct. 19, 2024, and arrested a student on drug charges, according to the blotter. It does not include specific charges and indicates that "an individual has been referred to the Office of Student Conduct."
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The blotter does not include details about what type of drug or drugs were involved or whether the arrested individual was a member of Chi Phi. Nor was it immediately clear how the incident was resolved.
Fox News Digital reached out to Cornell for comment and did not immediately receive a response.
The fraternity went on to host a party later that day, which stretched into the following morning.
That party is identified in the civil lawsuit filed on behalf of an unidentified Jane Doe, who reported allegations of sexual assault to university police on Nov. 8, telling investigators that she was attacked between 11 p.m. on Oct. 19 and 5:45 a.m. on Oct. 20.
In Doe's lawsuit, she also alleges she had been pressured into snorting ketamine.
Ketamine is an anesthetic with dissociative and hallucinogenic effects, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which also warns that the drug "has also been used to facilitate sexual assault."
The fraternity would later be suspended on Nov. 8, 2024, the same day Doe reported sex assault allegations to campus police, according to Doe's civil complaint.
Separately, vandals smashed windows and painted slogans in red at Day Hall, an administrative building, early Monday, according to images published by the Daily Sun.
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"We understand the frustration and strong emotions being expressed across our community," Kyle Kimball, the school's vice president for university relations, told Fox News in a statement. "Those concerns deserve to be heard, but damaging property is not the answer. We are investigating the vandalism at Day Hall and will address it in accordance with University policy and applicable law."
Tompkins County prosecutors declined to file criminal charges after Doe first reported the incident to university police in 2024.
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Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has said Doe's November 2024 sworn statement did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped and instead described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as "voluntary, conscious, and consensual."
However, according to a local CBS New York report, there is a transcript of what she later told investigators in a two-day interview on Nov. 14 and 15, where she distinguished an initial consensual encounter from allegations of assault that took place later at the party, reportedly telling them, "I can say with 100% confidence I was raped."
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"Nobody knows this information about the transcript and that gives me something to really dig into because that changes the landscape for me," Van Houten told the outlet.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor last week to examine the allegations raised in Doe's lawsuit.
Jeremy Saland, the attorney for one of the former fraternity brothers named in the lawsuit, Scott Kretzschmar, told Fox News Digital that his client welcomes "a full and thorough investigation" into Doe's allegations.
"Fairness and justice demand it, and she deserves nothing less," Saland said. "Justice also requires that those entrusted with the investigation reach conclusions from the evidence, not from statements made before the evidence has been reviewed. Though Scott has never been accused of rape, he is confident that an objective and honest process will clear him of any criminal wrongdoing."
Fox News' Ashley Papa, Michael Dorgan and Michelle Langer contributed to this report.