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Jane Doe texted one of the ‘Cornell 7‘ fraternity brothers she has accused of a horrific gang rape, saying her memory was clouded but ‘none of the sexual stuff was illegal.’
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit last month, claiming she was coerced into taking drugs and sexually assaulted by seven members of Cornell University’s Chi Phi fraternity at an off-campus house on October 20, 2024.
Text messages obtained by TMZ showed that Jane Doe and one of the men she accused, Jonathan Newell, texted the next day, October 21, 2025.
Newell reached out to Jane Doe and wrote: ‘I just wanted to apologize for how things went down the other night. My memory is kinda fuzzy abt [sic] a lot of it.’
He called her an ‘amazing person’ and said he hoped she was not ‘catching as much heat from this’ as the fraternity brothers were.
Jane Doe brushed off concerns from other people about their ‘gangbang’ and said they should not feel ashamed.
‘So anything anyone has to say about the gamgbang [sic] is out of their jurisdiction. I don’t think we should feel any shame for the part. our body our choice,’ she allegedly wrote.
Newell said that both he and another accused fraternity brother, Matthew Ingalls, felt terrible for being too intoxicated to ‘shut it down and kick people out before it got way out of hand.’
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit last month, claiming she was coerced into taking drugs and sexually assaulted by seven members of Cornell University’s Chi Phi fraternity at an off-campus house on October 20, 2024
One of the men allegedly posted to the fraternity’s active-members Snapchat group saying that there was ‘free p***y’ upstairs, referring to Doe, according to the filing, which included an image of the purported chat
Jane Doe responded: ‘Aw jonathan i really appreciate this text. my memories are super clouded too. i think we were all way to f**king drunk and high.
‘At the end of the day non [sic] of the sexual stuff was illegal and honestly I really liked being w u and matt.’
Jane Doe then reported the alleged rape three weeks after the incident, but prosecutors determined there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to bring criminal sexual assault charges, and the seven men have denied the accusations against them.
Newell was subsequently expelled from Cornell by a Title IX investigation, and the Daily Mail revealed this week that Newell has also since been kicked out of Nova Southeastern University in Florida.
Internal Cornell paperwork detailed by The New York Times on Thursday found that Newell was meant to work the night of her alleged attack as a sober safety monitor.
Newell was meant to be a ‘trained event monitor’ at the party who would remain sober and wear distinctive clothing, so their fellow partygoers could easily identify them in the event of an emergency.
Although Newell was listed as one of the sober monitors, the woman alleged in the civil lawsuit last month that he and his fraternity brothers plied her with drugs and alcohol before the alleged rape.
Jane Doe’s lawsuit sparked national outrage over how authorities handled the case
Jane Doe’s civil lawsuit alleged that she was sexually assaulted over a brutal seven-hour ordeal, during which time Newell also sent a Snapchat message to his fraternity inviting them to join.
Newell denied the allegations and told investigators that he had consensual sexual activity with Jane Doe on the night, and the new records show he claimed not to remember sending the Snapchat message.
Jane Doe’s lawsuit sparked national outrage over how authorities handled the case, and New York Attorney General Letitia James has since opened an ‘active criminal investigation’ into the allegations.
Cornell has hired Sally Yates, a former Obama-appointed justice official who was infamously fired by President Donald Trump, to investigate its response to gang rape allegations.
