Cornell Jane Doe swatted at family home amid rape lawsuit threats
Armed police swarmed the home of Cornell's Jane Doe after a false shooting report. Her lawyer says she has received dozens of threats since filing a sexual assault lawsuit.
Cornell rape accuser swatted as threats escalate against Jane Doe and her family
The woman known publicly as Cornell's Jane Doe was swatted at her parents' home on Tuesday evening, according to her attorney, Thomas Giuffra, who spoke to CNN on Wednesday. Officers arrived with weapons drawn after a caller falsely reported that a man had shot and killed his mother and then turned the gun on his sister inside the residence.
The tip was fabricated. According to a police report obtained by CNN, the first officer on the scene encountered a car backing out of the driveway and stopped two men inside — later identified as Doe's brother and her boyfriend. A third figure then appeared in the doorway. "I'm the dad. What's going on?" the man shouted, according to the report. He told responding officers that his daughter was Jane Doe of the Cornell case and that the family was "being threatened by numerous unknown people."
Giuffra described the scene to CNN in blunt terms. "Luckily the brother was in his car, put his hands up," he said. "The boyfriend got thrown on the ground," and her father also had "guns put in his face." He added: "If you had a trigger-happy cop, or somebody had done the wrong thing, somebody could have ended up dead."
As wsvn.com reports, citing CNN, police are now investigating the swatting attempt and the FBI is also looking into the events, according to Giuffra.
Dozens of threats since September
Doe filed a 101-page civil complaint in mid-September alleging she was drugged and sexually assaulted by several members of the Xi chapter of Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024. The suit names the university, the fraternity, seven fraternity members and others. It alleges that fraternity members invited others via a group chat to join the assault, and that Cornell failed to protect her and adequately punish the accused students. All seven named individuals deny wrongdoing.
Giuffra estimated that dozens of threats have been directed at his client since she filed the complaint. They have included death threats, doxxing attempts and a barrage of hostile messages across social media platforms. On Monday, Doe's phone received a text message containing three gun emojis. On Wednesday, a man called Giuffra's office and, in an audio recording the lawyer shared with CNN, identified himself as "the person who called your client." The recording includes the statement: "I'm telling you guys simply, I think you should advise your client to withdraw the case. Otherwise blood will be shed."
Giuffra's wife also received a threatening phone call before the night of the swatting was over. It is not clear, Giuffra said, whether the various threats were connected. "These people have done so much research into her," he told CNN.
A family in fear
One month ago, Doe was living in New York City, working to break into the hotel industry, Giuffra said. That trajectory changed when she filed the lawsuit. By Wednesday, she was taping paper over the windows of her parents' home out of fear that a gunman could target her from outside.
"I don't think she's in a good spot now," Giuffra said. "She's scared."
According to two police reports reviewed by CNN, police arrived moments after Doe also received a separate phone call from someone claiming to share a first name with one of the seven men named in her civil complaint. Doe "began panicking," she told officers at the scene, "because her phone wouldn't stop ringing."
Giuffra said her parents are angry and she is terrified. He described the swatting incident as a crossing of a threshold. "Before this week, it was just a lunatic fringe, which you can be dismissive of," he said. "Now it's somebody taking real steps to harm you, and that's pretty frightening."
Cornell and local authorities under scrutiny
The fallout from Doe's allegations has put Cornell University, its campus police force and the Tompkins County District Attorney's office under scrutiny over how they initially responded to her claims. On the Ithaca, New York, campus on Wednesday, student anger was visible during a sit-in protest.
A handful of online personalities with large followings have also led a campaign aimed at uncovering Doe's identity, which was redacted in legal documents. One user posted on X to 347,000 followers in late September calling on others to identify her.
Doe has been monitoring media coverage and social media posts related to her case, Giuffra told CNN — a detail that underscores the degree to which the public dimension of the lawsuit has consumed her daily life. Her lawyer did not indicate when or whether she plans to withdraw her complaint, despite the recorded demand that she do so.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)