A Canandaigua man is among seven former Cornell University students named in a civil lawsuit alleging a woman was drugged and sexually assaulted at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024. Scott Norris denies taking part in the alleged assault or drug use.
The local connection emerged as the case entered a new phase. Tompkins County prosecutors have reopened their criminal investigation, Cornell has agreed to an independent review of its response, and students are scheduled to speak at a campus hearing Thursday, Oct. 1. No criminal charges have been filed, and the allegations in the lawsuit have not been proved in court.
Norris said through his attorney that he briefly entered the room and participated in a Snapchat group chat, but did not engage in sexual activity or drug use. He also said Cornell did not find him responsible for the sexual activity and drug use allegations for which others received serious sanctions, according to 13WHAM-TV.
His response is significant because the complaint names seven men, while Cornell has said its disciplinary findings and sanctions differed according to each student’s conduct. The university has not publicly identified which students received which sanctions.
What the lawsuit alleges
The former student, identified as Jane Doe, alleges in a civil complaint filed in September that she went to the Chi Phi house after a sorority event on Oct. 19, 2024. She says fraternity members provided drugs and alcohol and sexually assaulted her after she became unable to consent.
The complaint names the seven men, Cornell, fraternity and sorority organizations, an Ithaca bar and other defendants. It seeks unspecified damages. Each defendant has the opportunity to contest the claims in court.
The lawsuit also alleges that fraternity members exchanged messages about the encounter and that Cornell’s response failed to protect Doe. Those claims are part of the pending civil case; a court has not determined what happened that night or ruled on the institutional defendants’ responsibility.
Prosecutor reopens criminal investigation
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced Sept. 28 that his office had reopened its investigation and assigned a senior prosecutor to prepare a possible presentation to a grand jury.
Van Houten said his office declined to file charges in November 2024 after reviewing a six-page statement Doe gave Cornell police. In his account, that statement differed materially from the later lawsuit. Doe’s attorney has disputed his characterization.
New reporting has added a question about what prosecutors received in 2024. CBS News New York reported that it obtained a transcript of Doe’s interview with campus police in which she said she was certain she had been raped. Van Houten told CBS he had not seen the transcript before deciding against charges and would seek it from Cornell police.
The transcript and Doe’s signed statement are distinct records. The complete signed statement has not been made public, leaving the competing descriptions of it difficult to assess independently. Cornell told NewsNation that its police department shared a lengthy investigative report with the district attorney’s office and referred questions about that report to prosecutors.
A grand jury presentation could lead to charges, but it does not guarantee them. The civil lawsuit can continue regardless of the criminal investigation’s outcome.
Cornell agrees to outside review
Gov. Kathy Hochul called Tuesday for outside counsel to examine Cornell’s handling of the case, including how the university received the report, investigated it and protected students. On Wednesday, Hochul said she had spoken with Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff and that the university had agreed to an independent review.
Cornell has defended its response. The university says campus police investigated the report and shared information with prosecutors. It says a separate university process included a hearing at which Doe and the accused students could present evidence, followed by sanctions that included expulsions and suspensions. Cornell closed the Chi Phi chapter in 2024 and says it remains barred from campus.
The university has rejected the suggestion that writing essays was the sole consequence imposed on any student involved. It has not released a public account assigning specific disciplinary outcomes to specific students.
The independent review’s scope, the identity of outside counsel and a timetable for findings have not yet been announced. It will examine the university’s response; it is separate from the prosecutor’s criminal investigation and Doe’s lawsuit.
Students seek answers at Thursday hearing
Cornell’s Student Assembly is scheduled to meet from 4:45 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Memorial Room at Willard Straight Hall, with a public hearing for members of the Cornell community. Student Assembly President Eeshaan Chaudhuri told CNY Central that students want answers about sexual violence, transparency and accountability.
A Student Assembly resolution under discussion calls for more information about Cornell’s disciplinary process, its coordination with law enforcement and the timeline of its response to the 2024 report. It also seeks a town hall with senior administrators and broader reporting on sexual misconduct case outcomes.
The resolution is a proposal, not an adopted university policy. The hearing will give students a forum to raise concerns; it will not determine the facts of the lawsuit or the outcome of the criminal investigation.
The broader campus climate is also receiving scrutiny. CNY Central reviewed state-required campus reports and found that expulsions represented a small share of sexual violence incidents reported to several New York universities between 2018 and 2024. A report to a university does not necessarily produce a finding against an identified student, so those totals cannot establish whether any particular case was handled appropriately.
For now, the central questions remain open: what evidence prosecutors will present, what the independent reviewers will be permitted to examine, and what Cornell will disclose about its response. Norris and the other defendants remain entitled to contest the lawsuit’s allegations as those processes move forward.
FingerLakes1.com is the region’s leading all-digital news publication. The company was founded in 1998 and has been keeping residents informed for more than two decades. Have a lead? Send it to news@fingerlakes1.com.