Attorney says Jane Doe facing threats, calls out alleged 'failures' of Cornell, law enforcement
The former Cornell student who reported an alleged gang rape at a campus fraternity has faced a series of threats and doxxing attempts in the three weeks since filing her explosive lawsuit, her attorney told ABC News.
Attorney Thomas Giuffra said Jane Doe is concerned about the threats but vowed to continue the case -- saying the national attention is bringing awareness to the issue, pushing lawmakers to reconsider laws surrounding consent, and providing a rare chance for accountability.
"Jane Doe is fearless," said Giuffra. "She always was interested in trying to make things better for other women, so there's no more Jane Does."
In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, Giuffra argued that Jane Doe has been subject to the "most incredible sequence of failures" by school officials and law enforcement, which ultimately led to this situation.
"It's been the most incredible sequence of failures I've seen in my 30-plus years of practice. I mean, it's not just one thing," he said. "I can't keep them straight half the time because there are so many. I mean, you have a failure everywhere along the line, everywhere."
ABC News has reached out to Cornell for a comment.
Cornell said in a statement on Sept. 21 that it takes allegations of sexual violence "extremely seriously" and that it "investigated and adjudicated the allegations consistent with university policies."
In a subsequent statement, the school said it conducted a "thorough" Title IX investigation and "issued a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions from Cornell."
Cornell's president, Michael Kotlikoff, released a video statement on Oct. 3, saying the incident is a "defining moment" and pledged reforms to campus culture and university policies and procedures.
Giuffra also called out Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who initially declined to bring charges in 2024.
Van Houten reopened the case on Sept. 27 after speaking with Jane Doe and her lawyer in the wake of a civil suit being filed alleging that she had been drugged and raped.
In an interview with ABC News after reopening the case, Van Houten defended his decision not to bring charges, saying "she clearly consented in the beginning, and there was never any indication that she changed that to the things that she participated in" but that "If at any point Jane Doe had said, 'I don't consent to this anymore,' or in those words, or in any form of communication. If there had been continued sexual activity, contact by these individuals, that would be a crime. But that's not what was alleged in her statement."
Last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul removed the local DA from the case and named state Attorney General Letitia James to take over the criminal investigation of the incident. Separately, Cornell has announced an outside law firm would be tapped this week to review the university's handling of the allegations and subsequent investigation.
Giuffra also pushed back on claims from attorneys for the accused fraternity brothers -- who argued that she consented or distanced themselves from the allegations -- arguing their "self-serving statements" are detached from reality and contradicted by the accounts of witnesses that evening.
Giuffra defended his client's decision to secretly record some of the men.
"She wanted to process what was going on. Because she couldn't really wrap her head around it because she was traumatized," he said.
Giuffra also tried to cast doubt on the claims by some of the men that they were too intoxicated to consent by pointing to the Snapchat group where they invited others to join. He described the chat as a "smoking gun."
ABC News obtained an extended version of the Snapchat group chat shared among more than 50 fraternity brothers during the alleged assault.
The fraternity brother who invited Jane Doe to the house that night sent a photo to the chat that appears to show her in the bedroom. He allegedly wrote in the chat, "Boys come whip it out."
"I don't care what their defense lawyers say. I don't care what the university says. That is the classic gun. It's like a body on the ground, a smoking gun. That's that Snapchat," Giuffra said.
Jane Doe withdrew from Cornell due to the incident, according to her attorney, and the civil suit filed in the case. None of the men named in the suit have responded in court, although each has denied wrongdoing to investigators, in public statements, or through their lawyers.
