Satirist launches site naming Cornell students accused in gang-rape lawsuit
The Chi Phi fraternity was barred from campus in 2024Image: Heather Ainsworth/AP Photo/picture allianceAdvertisementToby Morton, who wrote several episodes of the animated comedy series "South Park," launched a website seeking accountability in connection with an alleged 2024 sexual assault case involving seven Cornell University fraternity members. The site names seven men accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old woman who was allegedly unconscious after being given drugs and alcohol at a Cornell fraternity house and collects personal data and photos of the members involved.
"I've received messages reminding me I'm not a journalist, I'm 'just a satirist,'" Morton wrote in a September 27 Instagram post regarding the creation of his website TheCornell7.org. "This is true, but it makes me more dangerous," he added, saying he has "nobody to tell me I've gone too far."
The case has recently drawn a surge in public attention after the accuser, identified as Jane Doe to protect her identity, filed a lawsuit in mid-September. Her complaint alleges that she was brutally sexually assaulted in 2024 by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity while unconscious after being pressured to take ketamine, smoke marijuana and drink alcohol at the fraternity house on Cornell's campus in Ithaca, New York. The university, she said in the lawsuit, failed to protect her. Cornell conducted an internal investigation after the incident, but no one was charged.
Since the lawsuit was filed on September 16, the case has generated widespread commentary on social media. Some have criticized Cornell and the district attorney's office, while others have questioned the allegations.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who handled the original case, said his office has reopened it and plans to present evidence to a grand jury amid public questions about why no criminal charges were initially filed.
Van Houten said in a statement that his office is considering bringing criminal charges related to the incident, though the allegations in the civil complaint are "dramatically different" from the woman's statement to police two years ago — in her statement to authorities, she did not allege she was drugged without her knowledge or that she did not consent to engage in sexual acts.
Cornell's Chi Phi chapter was barred from campus after the alleged incident in 2024. The accuser also dropped out of Cornell University, according to her attorney.
One of the most chilling allegations of the lawsuit is that a message was sent to a Chi Phi Snapchat group at about 1:42 a.m., inviting members to the room to abuse Doe, who was heavily under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The lawsuit alleges that more men then entered the room and that the assault continued for several hours until Doe lost consciousness.
"There were so many people that could have prevented it and they didn't. I've never seen anything like it," an attorney for Jane Doe, Thomas Giuffra, told CBS. Giuffra pointed out that two of the seven accused fraternity members were expelled, while the others received lesser disciplinary measures. "Not one of these guys was arrested," Giuffra told the network.
Many people, from US politicians to Hollywood actors, have spoken out about the case in recent days. US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, condemned what she described as a "culture of rape" protected by elite institutions. "When I read what happened at Cornell, those men posted in a group chat. That means it was normal to them. That means it was acceptable to them. This is a culture, and what we must do is understand that we cannot protect those spaces anymore," she said Sunday at a forum near Cornell's campus.
British actress Florence Pugh described the allegations as "horrific" on social media and expressed her support for the student involved. Pugh, who is also currently on a promotional tour for her upcoming Netflix series "East of Eden," wrote a lengthy statement on Instagram, saying that "Colleges/schools/universities repeatedly fail women around the world. You build men that get taught through time and time again that they can do extreme harm and that they won't be harmed in return."
"Those who protect and impose light sentences on men who rape and destroy lives should be punished and closely scrutinized. Why are you protecting someone so fiercely?" she wrote.
American actor Josh Gad, best known as the voice of Olaf in Disney's"Frozen" films, also commented on the Cornell case, criticizing what he described as insufficient disciplinary consequences for the students accused of sexual assault. In an Instagram post, Gad said sexual violence should not be treated as a mistake or addressed with limited disciplinary action by a university, arguing that the alleged conduct had "destroyed a life” and calling for greater accountability. Edited by Joshua Lang.
