Cornell gang rape accuser: ‘I had so much ketamine, my eyes were crossed, and you still had sex with me’

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Newly unsealed documents stemming from a campus investigation into a reported gang rape at Cornell University reveal a more detailed picture of the incident, including how the woman at the center of the case described what happened in the days and months that followed.

The records follow an investigation that included more than 50 interviews with 32 people after a then-20-year-old student accused several young men of drugging and raping her inside a fraternity house in October 2024. Those records include interviews with the accuser — referred to in her recent bombshell lawsuit as Jane Doe — and six of the seven men named in that civil complaint.

“I felt like bait. I felt like lions around me,” she said during a May 2025 disciplinary hearing. “It just was a totally debilitating place to be in.”

One roommate recalled her saying, “Oh my goodness, isn’t that crazy?” the morning after the alleged rape, according to documents reviewed by CBS News. The roommate said she appeared to be in shock as she laughed about the incident. A second roommate said Jane Doe told her, “I wasn’t comfortable.”

That second roommate also said she overheard the woman tell one of the men, “You had penetrative sex with me. I had so much ketamine, my eyes were crossed, and you still had sex with me.”

The accounts are included in transcripts that were part of an investigation required under Title IX, the landmark civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination. The panel’s decision was included in documents unsealed in New York this week.

In an interview with campus police and investigators three weeks after the incident, Jane Doe said she didn’t show “excitement and enthusiasm, which is kinda the basis of consent” and stated with “100 percent confidence I was raped.”

In an announcement on its website Thursday, Cornell said its Office of Civil Rights and the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards investigated the allegations over several months, including hearings with evidence presented to faculty and staff.

The panel later “issued a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions from Cornell,” the university said.

The woman reported the incident to campus police at the time but no criminal charges were ever filed.

Her lawsuit names seven men as well as their fraternity, the university and her sorority. The men have denied wrongdoing.

Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has defended his office’s decision against criminal charges but he has signaled potentially re-opening the case in recent days as growing calls for accountability dominate headlines.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has removed the prosecutor from the case and tapped state Attorney General Letitia James to launch a probe. In remarks on Friday, James called the case an “active criminal investigation.”

“In what world would the police learn from a victim that she’d been literally gang-raped while intoxicated by five men in the fraternity house, and not elevate those allegations to the district attorney?” Hochul said.

“This woman, this young woman, had already endured something that is utterly unspeakable. And then at every turn, she was failed by people and institutions with an obligation to protect her,” she added.

In a statement on Friday, Van Houten said “it has become clear that we were not provided the full picture by the university.”

“The focus has been and should continue to be on the victims,” he added. “My office with cooperate fully with the attorney general.”

In interviews with campus police, a Title IX investigator, a victim advocate and her adviser in November 2024, Jane Doe described drinking and using drugs the night of the alleged rape, and said she had gaps in her memory.

She appeared to distinguish initial sexual activity from what happened later, saying she “was super drunk” when she arrived and “being hit at the same time.”

“Physically hit very, very hard,” she said.

When describing what happened later that night, she said: “I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped.”

Doe’s lawsuit claims that, after an initial assault, one of the men sent a message to the fraternity’s active Snapchat group chat stating there was “free p****” and invited additional members to join. Several other male students arrived, and Doe was subjected to an hours-long assault by seven of them, according to her complaint.

Her 101-page complaint, filed September 14 in New York County Supreme Court, details graphic allegations of abuse, including men snorting lines of ketamine off her body, moving her between rooms, and continuing to assault her while she was incapacitated before losing consciousness.

The lawsuit, first reported by a student journalist, has reinvigorated urgent conversations about sexual assault and campus fraternities while putting a spotlight on one of the country’s top universities.

“Every New Yorker deserves to know that when they report a crime, it will be investigated fully and fairly,” attorney general James said Thursday. “The governor has entrusted my office with this investigation, and we do not take that responsibility lightly.”

For those affected by rape and sexual abuse, if you are in the United States, you can call Rainn on 800-656-HOPE (4673).

Rape Crisis also offers support.You can call them on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, and 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland, or visit their website at www.rapecrisis.org.uk.