A Cornell University fraternity brother asked if the “shop [was] still open” in reference to the female student who was allegedly drugged and raped in an hours-long gang assault in their Ithaca house, according to sickening newly obtained messages.
The message was sent in a Snapchat group chat between the members of Phi Chi fraternity on the night the student, referred to only as Jane Doe, claimed she was plied with drugs and sexually assaulted by seven students in October 2024.
“Shop still open?” the text, obtained by CBS New York, read.
“Yea,” another frat bro flippantly responded.
It was unclear who sent the message.
Earlier in the chain of Snapchat messages, one of the fellow frat brothers announced that there was “free p–sy” upstairs, in reference to Jane Doe, at around 1:42 a.m., the suit alleges.
The seven fraternity brothers named in the suit are Matthew Ingalls, Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris, and Scott Kretzschmar.
A lawyer for Kretzschmar denied that his client participated in any sexual abuse or any of the other acts detailed in the suit, including that he poured ketamine onto Jane Doe’s body and snorted it off her.
Jeremy Saland said a “hair follicle test” on his client showed he had no ketamine in his system, CBS reported. That test has not been independently reviewed.
Saland said Kretzschmar saw the Snapchat messages, went into the room for a few minutes, and then left.
“She was not undressed. He didn’t see her under duress. She wasn’t having a hard time articulating anything,” he said.
An attorney for Lopes, Andrew Miltenberg, said his client “unequivocally denies the allegations against him,” which he said were “previously investigated” by Cornell.
“The allegations now being made publicly differ from what was reported and investigated during that process,” he told CBS.
Here’s the latest on the Cornell frat probe:
Tompkins County DA Matthew Van Houten said he was reopening the case due to purported new evidence from Jane Doe.
He added that her sworn statement at the time “did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped.”
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