Expelled ‘Cornell 7’ frat bro Matthew Ingalls claimed he was too drunk to attack Jane Doe and suggested she was the one who assaulted him, report says

One of the former Cornell University fraternity brothers who was accused of gang rape claimed he had been too drunk to attack the alleged victim – and even suggested that she was the one who assaulted him.

Matthew Ingalls, who was later suspended from the university, had invited the alleged victim – only identified in court documents as Jane Doe – to the Chi Phi fraternity house on October 19, 2024 when she claims she was drugged and raped. 

When university police then investigated Jane Doe’s claim that she was raped, Ingalls said he was too intoxicated to consent to any sexual intercourse, according to records obtained by ABC News.

He then even suggested that Jane Doe may have assaulted him. 

But in a phone call obtained by Cornell University police, Ingalls was heard insisting to the victim: ‘You did tell me you were sober, by the way.’

The audio showed differing recollections of the alleged attack, as Jane Doe told Ingalls that he ‘already knew I was 10 shots deep’ when he and six others allegedly sexually assaulted her. 

‘If I wanted to take this somewhere, what y’all did would be classified as gang rape,’ she told him in one message. 

Jane Doe also told Ingalls she had spent time in the emergency room and in therapy following the alleged assault in the fraternity house, because there was ‘so much damage on my body and my brain.’

Ingalls pleaded his innocence in the call with Jane Doe, telling her that she convinced him she was not intoxicated and ‘hadn’t been anywhere’ that night, which she disputed. 

Yet Jane Doe could be heard in the audio asking Ingalls for details about the night, including how they ended up in a threesome in his fraternity house.

‘So, you come in, say hi, and we start dancing for maybe like three to five minutes… And then I pop the question, you say yes,’ he replied.

He said they ‘didn’t know who else to bring’ into the threesome, so he found another man on the dancefloor who agreed, ‘and then we go upstairs.’

Jane Doe alleges that several more Chi Phi fraternity brothers then joined them in the room periodically and joined in, and she alleged in a civil lawsuit that they advertised ‘free p***y’ in a Snapchat group chat. 

In the audio, Jane Doe told Ingalls she did not remember who all of the men were during the encounter, and said she recalled four men in a bed at one point with more stood around them.

Ingalls responded: ‘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.’

Jane Doe argued back to this, saying: ‘No, because I remember looking up and being like, ‘That is too many people.’ 

The audio showed that while Ingalls appeared to try and calm Jane Doe’s feelings about the incident, he did not mention that he texted his fraternity group chat during the alleged assault, according to Jane Doe’s lawsuit. 

He allegedly posted a photo of Jane Doe to the fraternity group chat, and said, ‘Boys come whip it out’, the lawsuit alleges.

Jane Doe now claims in her lawsuit that seven men eventually participated and that Doe became ‘completely incapacitated.’ She says the ordeal continued until around 5.45am, when she lost consciousness.

She then reported the allegations to Cornell University Police on November 8 after friends encouraged her to come forward, according to the lawsuit.

Cornell temporarily suspended the fraternity and seven students that day, but the lawsuit alleges that only Ingalls and one other attacker were expelled from the school while the others were asked only to submit essays.

Doe, meanwhile, dropped out of the school in the aftermath. 

Alongside Ingalls, the other Chi Phi fraternity brothers named by Jane Doe in her civil lawsuit are Jonathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar.

They have all denied any wrongdoing and have not been charged with a crime, as the Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office cited ‘insufficient evidence’ following the school’s 2024 investigation.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has since called on Attorney General Letitia James to lead a renewed criminal investigation, but before the decision was made, James posted on Facebook about the case. 

‘What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable. To her, and to all survivors: You’re not alone. We stand with you,’ James wrote. 

Because her statement was written as fact, Andrew Miltenberg, who represents defendant Lopes, believes that James should not be part of the new investigation. 

‘There is nothing improper about expressing compassion for someone who reports a sexual assault. But there is an important difference between supporting a person who makes an allegation and appearing to accept the factual premise of that allegation before conducting an investigation,’ he told Fox News. 

Miltenberg further suggested that James should recuse herself from the probe and have another senior prosecutor who has not commented on the case handle the investigation.

‘That would not weaken the investigation. It would strengthen it,’ the attorney told the outlet. 

Miltenberg expressed similar concerns about James while speaking to NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo about the case that garnered national attention.  

‘I think we have great concern as to Attorney General James being in charge because of the position she publicly took and publicized at the outset – before she was named special prosecutor,’ Miltenberg told Cuomo. 

‘I don’t know how any of these boys can get a fair investigation and a fair shake at this point,’ he added.