Lawsuit alleges Cornell allowed persistent sexual assaults, misconduct from former male student

An ongoing lawsuit filed in 2023 alleges that Cornell University permitted a male student to sexually abuse two women and potentially others.

The lawsuit, filed by two alleged victims against Cornell and the alleged offender, said the university failed to protect the accusers and others from persistent sexual assault, sexual abuse and other misconduct.

“Throughout his enrollment in the school and on campus, the [defendant] sexually abused, sexually assaulted, and perpetrated egregious sexual misconduct against college students, specifically on the Plaintiffs,” according to a lawsuit filed in Tompkins County Supreme Court on Nov. 10, 2023.

The lawsuit was first reported by the New York Focus.

A judge on the case previously denied motions to dismiss the lawsuit. Pretrial discovery proceedings are underway.

“Cornell disputes any assertion that it failed to investigate reported sexual misconduct and absolutely rejects any assertion that it would have failed to act in response to multiple reports of such misconduct. The university has no further comment on this pending litigation,” according to a statement from a spokesperson for the school.

The student’s attorney, Keith White, said his client’s responses to the allegations “are asserted in the responses filed in the lawsuit” and declined to comment further. The official response contains denials but no additional information.

The plaintiffs in the case did not respond to requests for comment.

One of the accusers said in an affidavit that she was sexually assaulted and abused by the alleged male student in September and October 2018 and that she filed a Title IX civil rights case against him around that time.

The male student, whose name NBC News is withholding because he has not been charged criminally in this case, denied all allegations in court papers.

The Title IX office received “numerous” other complaints against the same individual, according to a sworn statement from one of the women dated April 19, 2024.

The other accuser said the male student “sexually, physically, and verbally assaulted me in his on-campus dorm room” on May 7, 2021. That alleged victim filed a Title IX complaint in August of that year but “no action was taken,” and the alleged offender continued to attend Cornell, the plaintiff wrote in a separate April 2024 submission.

However, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, he was suspended by the university and later transferred to a different school. It was not clear what led to his suspension.

Title IX is a federal law that prohibits gender-based discrimination. It is commonly used as a way for colleges and universities to adjudicate allegations of sexual assault outside of the criminal justice system. A person who is accused can face both civil proceedings under Title IX and criminal proceedings in local courts.

The pending case comes to light as the Ivy League institution grapples with a high-profile scandal over a different civil case filed in September by a woman identified in court papers as Jane Doe. Jane Doe alleged that she was gang-raped and forced to do drugs at the Chi Phi fraternity house in 2024.

An internal investigation for that case resulted in two expulsions and other repercussions, but no criminal charges were filed. New York Attorney General Letitia James was tapped by the governor on Oct. 1 to lead a new criminal investigation. Last week, James announced that a former federal prosecutor was recruited by her office to lead the inquiry.

The 2023 case came to light days after the faculty senate issued a vote of no confidence in the ability of Cornell administrators to handle what the sponsors called an “ongoing crisis of sexual assault.”

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. The hotline, run by the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), can put you in contact with your local rape crisis center. You can also access RAINN’s online chat service at rainn.org/get-help.