Matthew Ingalls, a Cornell University student at the center of the Chi Phi fraternity sexual assault scandal, told campus investigators that he was too intoxicated to consent to sex and implied that his accuser, known as Jane Doe, was in fact the aggressor.
According to Western Journal, that claim emerged in a report by ABC News, which reviewed Cornells confidential investigative file, police documents, text messages, and a recorded phone call between Ingalls and Doe.
The networks account has intensified scrutiny of both Cornells handling of the case and the broader campus culture that allowed such an incident to unfold, even as no criminal charges have been filed to date.
Ingalls and other Chi Phi members have consistently denied any wrongdoing, and prosecutors have not brought criminal counts against any of the men named in the allegations.
Despite the absence of indictments, the case has already produced severe academic penalties, reputational damage, and a renewed debate over due process and fairness in university-led Title IX proceedings.
Police records cited by ABC News state that Ingalls invited Doe to the Chi Phi fraternity house on Oct. 19, 2024, for what initially appeared to be a social gathering.
Nearly three weeks later, on Nov. 8, Doe, then a junior at Cornell, went to the Cornell University Police Department and reported that she had been raped by eight to 10 men at the fraternity house.
That same day, Cornell suspended the Chi Phi chapter, effectively shutting down its operations while the university launched an internal investigation.
The inquiry, which ran from November 2024 through May 2025, concluded with two men being expelled and others suspended, ABC News reported, even though the criminal justice system has yet to reach any final determination.
Does account, as relayed first to police and later to campus authorities, was that a casual visit to see a friend at the house escalated into a sexual encounter with two men that then expanded to include others while she was being supplied with alcohol and drugs.
In a 2024 statement to campus police, she said parts of the night felt like coercion, and she later told one of the men on a recorded call, What yall did would be classified as gang rape.
Ingalls version of events, however, inverted the central question of consent and cast himself as incapable of meaningful agreement to sexual activity.
During Cornells investigation, he said he was too intoxicated to consent and suggested Doe assaulted him, school records reviewed by ABC News showed, raising the possibility of mutual impairment and conflicting memories.
The New York Post reported that those same records described Ingalls as intoxicated from a combination of alcohol and ketamine, a powerful dissociative drug.
Such details underscore the dangerous culture of heavy drinking and drug use that often surrounds fraternity life, where personal responsibility and moral restraint can be easily discarded in favor of reckless indulgence.
The day before she went to campus police, Doe called Ingalls and told him, The only way for me to heal is to know what happened, according to a recording ABC News obtained.
She said she was trying to piece the night together and was confused, indicating that her own recollection of the events was fragmented and uncertain.
On that call, Ingalls told her, You did tell me you were sober, by the way, and You did, you said you hadnt been anywhere.
Doe immediately disputed that characterization, answering, That is not true. I never would have said that, a direct contradiction that highlights the evidentiary murkiness so common in alcohol-fueled encounters.
Other outlets that reviewed the same reporting quoted Doe as saying she had been 10 shots deep when she arrived at the fraternity house.
If accurate, that level of intoxication would raise serious questions about her capacity to consent, even as she accuses multiple men of exploiting her impaired state.
During the recorded conversation, Doe asked Ingalls how other men entered the bedroom where the sexual activity occurred.
He responded that the door had been unlocked, the party was crowded, and there was nowhere else to go, according to the recording, a casual explanation that clashes sharply with her description of feeling overwhelmed and violated.
ABC News reported that Ingalls did not mention Snapchat messages, later turned over to university investigators, in which he wrote to a group of nearly 60 fraternity members, Like you can walk in and whip it out, and Boys come whip it out.
Those messages, if accurately presented and contextualized, suggest a crude and hyper-sexualized environment that undermines claims of complete innocence, even as the legal standard for criminal guilt remains high.
The civil complaint filed in connection with the case described a related message chain in which one brother wrote that there was free p***y.
Such language reflects a dehumanizing attitude toward women that has become disturbingly normalized in some corners of campus culture, especially where progressive administrators often talk about consent but fail to enforce basic standards of decency and discipline.
At another point on the call, Ingalls told Doe, Its possible that both of us, like, remember this and its not true.
That remark hints at the possibility of distorted or incomplete memories on both sides, a factor that should caution against hasty judgments and mob-driven narratives that presume guilt without rigorous scrutiny.
Doe said she remembered looking up and thinking there were too many people in the room, a moment she has described as a turning point in her sense of fear and loss of control.
At a 2025 campus hearing, she said, I felt like bait, according to a university report ABC News reviewed, language that conveys a profound sense of being used and trapped.
In the days following the sexual encounter, Doe remained in contact with some of the men she would later accuse, ABC News reported, a fact that defense advocates often cite as inconsistent with claims of violent assault.
In a message to Ingalls, she wrote that the episode was ruining my life temporarily, that her reputation was destroyed, and that she was ashamed that so many people knew, indicating deep emotional turmoil regardless of how the legal questions are ultimately resolved.
After she formally reported the case, the fraternity brothers exchanged text messages debating whether to contact her directly.
F***. Should I call [Jane]? one wrote on Nov. 8, a sign of panic and uncertainty as the allegations began to surface.
The chapter president advised him to wait while the executive board decided on a course of action, reflecting an instinct to manage the crisis collectively rather than individually.
A friend of Doe later told campus authorities that the men tried to contact her almost every day to keep them on her good side, a claim that could be interpreted either as harassment or as clumsy attempts at damage control.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said Does original statement suggested that both the sex and the drug use were consensual, and that his office declined to review additional interviews beyond her six-page statement to campus police.
That prosecutorial decision, grounded in a reading of the initial evidence, ran headlong into the political climate of New York, where progressive leaders are quick to intervene when a case touches on hot-button issues like campus sexual assault.
Gov. Kathy Hochul subsequently removed Van Houten from the case and appointed state Attorney General Letitia James to take over the criminal investigation.
This extraordinary step effectively sidelined a locally elected prosecutor in favor of a statewide official with a well-known ideological agenda, raising concerns among conservatives about politicization of the justice system and the erosion of local autonomy.
Cornell, facing mounting public pressure and internal dissent, announced that an outside law firm would review the universitys handling of the allegations.
Such a move is often framed as a commitment to transparency, yet it also serves to shield administrators from immediate accountability while the institution navigates legal exposure and public relations fallout.
The criminal case remains open under the attorney generals office, and the civil lawsuit brought by Doe proceeds on a separate track.
That dual process means that both the accused students and the accuser are likely to endure years of uncertainty, legal costs, and public scrutiny, even as the presumption of innocence is frequently ignored in the court of public opinion.
For many observers on the right, the Cornell case encapsulates the dangers of a campus culture shaped by progressive ideology, where alcohol and drugs are rampant, sexual norms are blurred, and due process is often subordinated to political narratives.
The conflicting accounts, the heavy intoxication on all sides, the inflammatory group messages, and the intervention of partisan state officials together form a troubling portrait of a system that struggles to balance justice for alleged victims with the fundamental rights of the accused.
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