Three officials have stepped into the Cornell University fraternity case in recent weeks. Now a podcast host says the group’s nickname no longer fits the facts.
Governor Kathy Hochul appointed Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten reopened a case his office had previously closed.
On Tuesday, Cornell announced it had hired former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to review its handling of the matter and its broader sexual assault policies.
Van Houten had earlier concluded the evidence fell short, based on the accuser’s statement to police at the time. Prosecutors never charged any of the seven former students, and all of them deny wrongdoing.
On Wednesday, Megyn Kelly weighed in on her podcast. She said the “Cornell seven” should become the “Cornell eight.”
Her argument centers on defendant Matthew Ingalls.
Kelly said he accused the plaintiff, identified in court papers only as Jane Doe, “of being a sexual molester, a harasser and assaulter” in his communications with campus police.
“He’s alleged in this proceeding that if the standard is you were intoxicated and someone had sex with you, notwithstanding that fact, very intoxicated, then she is an… assaulter as well,” Kelly said.
Doe filed her civil lawsuit last month. She alleges seven men took part in sexual intercourse with her over seven hours at the Chi Phi fraternity house on October 19, 2024.
She says several alcoholic drinks and ketamine left her “completely incapacitated,” and that the encounter continued until about 5:45 a.m., when she lost consciousness.
Friends urged her to come forward, the suit states, and she reported the incident to Cornell University Police on November 8.
Ingalls invited Doe to the house that night. Text messages show he described dancing with her before a threesome that also included defendant Jonathan Newell.
According to Kelly, both Ingalls and Doe told police that Ingalls “was passing out repeatedly” during that encounter.
Kelly said Doe knew he could not stay awake, and that her own account says she “kept trying to wake him up.”
Kelly said Ingalls also told Cornell’s Title IX investigation that Doe performed oral sex on him while he drifted in and out of consciousness from drugs and alcohol. Kelly claimed investigators “didn’t take it seriously.”
Ingalls then sent the school a letter. “I knew you’d do this. I knew you’d only take her allegation seriously. That she’s the only one who could possibly be assaulted, not me,” he wrote.
He followed in February 2025 with an email to the Title IX investigator that accused the university of “entrapment” and raised the possibility of his own complaint against Doe.
“After all, you received information that I was sodomized by her while I was incapacitated back in November and you never once thought to alert me of my rights under these procedures as a survivor of this assault?” he wrote.
He added: “The very fact that I had to bring this to your attention now in February confirms my worst fears: that this process is rolled [sic] with gender discrimination.”
Campus police also obtained a recorded phone call between the two. Ingalls insisted Doe had told him she was sober. Doe rejected that, telling him he “already knew I was 10 shots deep.”
“If I wanted to take this somewhere, what y’all did would be classified as gang rape,” she told him.
Doe said she could not recall who all the men were.
She remembered four men in a bed at one point, with more standing around them. Ingalls replied: “I have racked my brain for this mystery.
You know, it’s possible that both of us, like, remember this and it’s not true.”
Doe answered: “No, because I remember looking up and being like, ‘That is too many people.’”
Her lawsuit alleges Ingalls left out one detail during that call.
It claims he texted the fraternity group chat during the encounter, posting a photo of Doe with the message “Boys come whip it out.”
Cornell expelled Ingalls and Newell, and the suit alleges Newell struck Doe. The university suspended Winston Lee and Gillio Lopes, and both have since re-enrolled.
Diego Sarabia, who had already graduated, received a campus ban.
Investigators found Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar not responsible for sexual activity, and neither faced expulsion or suspension.
