A New York judge handed a legal win to the woman known as “Jane Doe” in the high-profile “Cornell 7” gang-rape civil lawsuit, ruling Friday that she can continue pursuing her claims without publicly revealing her identity.
Judge Phaedra Perry-Bond, a Democrat elected to the New York Supreme Court in 2023, cited the high-profile nature of the allegations and reports of harassment and threats against people connected to the case in her decision to grant Doe anonymity.
“The notoriety of the allegations and widespread reports of certain malicious actors’ behavior” warranted anonymity, the judge wrote in her opinion.
“While the Court is cognizant that some members of the public have made it their mission to try and identify Jane Doe, and have likewise tried to use what they believe to be Jane Doe’s identity to harass and threaten certain individuals allegedly tied to her, the Court issues the following words of caution: cyberstalking and engaging in or encouraging threats across state lines, whether it be of Jane Doe, any of the named defendants, or their attorneys, can be considered a federal crime and perpetrators of those acts may be subjecting themselves to prosecution,” Perry-Bond added.
Notably, however, she recently rejected a gag-order request from one of the seven defendants, Diego Sarabia, whose attorney argued that public statements about the case could prejudice potential jurors and contribute to threats, harassment, and doxing of those involved in the case, including the accused males. Perry-Bond called the request a “side show” intended to “muddy the waters” and urged attorneys on all sides to cooperate in shielding their clients from threats and harassment.
Doe, who was 20 years old at the time of the alleged incident, has accused seven Cornell University Chi Phi fraternity brothers of being involved in her alleged drugging and gang rape back in October 2024. All seven men have denied wrongdoing and at least three of the accused men say it was Doe who was the aggressor and that she did not obtain their consent. One of the men, Matthew Ingalls, told a Cornell Title IX investigator that Doe sexually assaulted him while he was too incapacitated to consent, and he accused the university of failing to inform him of his rights as an alleged victim.
Doe filed her civil suit in Manhattan, where her attorney says she was living at the time. According to her attorney, she had moved to New York City earlier this year to pursue a career in the hotel industry, but she returned to her parents’ home after the lawsuit drew national attention and threats. Moonies Bar & Nightclub, an Ithaca bar also named as a defendant, is seeking to move the case to Tompkins County, where Cornell’s campus and the alleged incident are located. A judge has not yet ruled on the venue dispute.
No criminal charges have been filed against the accused men, although the criminal investigation has since been reopened.
Related: Cornell 7 Case Takes New Turn As Accuser Admits She Had The Wrong Guy
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