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Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten confirmed on September 28, 2026, that his office has reopened the investigation into allegations against seven current and former members of Cornell University’s Chi Phi fraternity and will present the case to a grand jury for possible indictment. Van Houten said in a statement that community outrage following the civil lawsuit prompted him to revisit the earlier decision not to pursue charges, adding that a senior prosecutor with experience in campus sexual assault cases will oversee the grand jury preparation. The district attorney described the behavior of certain Chi Phi members as without question disgusting and morally reprehensible while stressing that any prosecution would proceed in the most objective manner through grand jury testimony.
The civil lawsuit, filed September 16 in New York Supreme Court by a woman identified as Jane Doe, accuses the seven men of plying her with alcohol, marijuana and ketamine at the fraternity house in October 2024 until she was too intoxicated to consent. According to the complaint detailed across multiple news outlets including Reuters and The Washington Post, fraternity members used a Snapchat group chat called Chi Phi Actives to share a photo and messages encouraging others to participate with phrases such as free p. The alleged assaults continued for hours until early the next morning, the filing states.
Van Houten explained that the woman’s initial statement to campus police three weeks after the incident in 2024 described her drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious and consensual, which differed dramatically from the claims in the civil suit. The district attorney’s office reported that it never received the group chat evidence or other details now included in the lawsuit during the original probe and did not conduct an independent investigation at that time. A senior prosecutor from the office has now begun conversations with Jane Doe and her attorneys to assess any additional evidence, according to statements obtained by Newsweek and the Cornell Daily Sun.
Cornell University issued a statement supporting the district attorney’s decision to reopen the case and noted that its own Office of Civil Rights and Office of Student Conduct had investigated the matter in 2024. The university reported that the Chi Phi chapter was shuttered and remains barred from campus while two of the accused students were expelled and the others received lesser discipline including workshops and essays. A Cornell spokesperson told reporters that the school had cooperated with law enforcement and continues to prioritize student safety in such matters.
One defense attorney representing defendant Scott Kretzschmar told the Cornell Daily Sun that no investigative body had found his client liable for sexual assault as alleged in the lawsuit and characterized some claims as selfishly false. The civil complaint names not only the seven individuals but also Cornell University, the Chi Phi fraternity organization, its alumni house corporation, a local bar, sorority groups and several unnamed parties as defendants. Van Houten noted that he had not been contacted by the accuser’s lawyer prior to the suit about reconsidering the original no-charge decision.
The case has drawn renewed national attention with coverage from CNN, The Associated Press and People magazine highlighting questions about how initial campus reports transition to criminal proceedings. Prosecutors intend to seek justice through the grand jury process if sufficient evidence supports charges, according to the district attorney’s detailed public explanation. The fraternity chapter at the center of the allegations has had no recognized presence on the Ithaca campus since the 2024 shutdown.
