ITHACA, New York — On Wednesday, the woman known in court papers as Cornell’s Jane Doe spent the day taping paper over the windows of her parents’ home. The night before, armed police had surrounded the house after a false report that “someone was killing people” inside, her lawyer said.
Thomas Giuffra, her attorney, told CNN that officers pointed weapons at her boyfriend, her brother and her father during the Tuesday evening swatting. Police are investigating, and the FBI is also looking into the events, he said. “Somebody could have been killed,” Giuffra said. “This has gone too far.”
The swatting came moments after Doe received a phone call from someone using the first name of one of the seven men she accuses, according to her lawyer and two police reports reviewed by CNN. Giuffra estimated that dozens of threats have reached her since mid-September, including a text with three gun emojis. In one recorded call, a man said the lawyer should advise his client to withdraw the case. “Otherwise blood will be shed,” he said.
Doe filed a 101-page civil lawsuit last month against Cornell University, the Chi Phi fraternity and seven current and former members. She alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted at the fraternity house on October 19 and 20, 2024. The men named in the suit have denied wrongdoing, and a lawyer for one of them told CNN the encounter was consensual.
The criminal case has moved out of local hands. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten declined to bring charges in 2024, saying the facts presented to him did not support a prosecution. He has since said his office received only a six-page statement and Snapchat messages, not the full police interview. On October 1, Governor Kathy Hochul appointed Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor, and the New York Attorney General’s Office now leads an active criminal investigation.
New documents have deepened the questions about the original inquiry. Cornell police drafted letters to Verizon and T-Mobile on November 15, 2024, asking them to preserve phone data, CNN reported. It is not clear whether the letters were sent or whether prosecutors ever knew about them.
On campus, students held a seven-hour sit-in on Wednesday in solidarity with Doe. Cornell’s trustees have hired former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to review how the university handles sexual assault claims. Hochul has also pledged to close a gap in New York law that bars a person who voluntarily took drugs or alcohol from claiming incapacity, unless they were physically helpless.
Giuffra said at least three women wrongly identified online as Doe have also received threats. The Eastern Herald is not identifying her. Police are still investigating the swatting, and no one has been charged in the underlying case.
