Cornell Lawsuit Plaintiff Faces Swatting Attack and Death Threats

A woman identified publicly as Cornell’s Jane Doe is facing escalating threats after filing a lawsuit alleging sexual assault at Cornell University, prompting a false emergency report that brought armed police to her family’s home Tuesday evening, according to her attorney, Thomas Giuffra. The incident has heightened fears for her safety as the lawsuit draws widespread attention and student protests continue on campus in Ithaca, New York.

Giuffra told CNN Wednesday that police responded to a fabricated report claiming someone had shot and killed his mother before turning a gun on his sister. Officers arrived believing they were confronting an active-shooter situation and encountered the woman’s brother and boyfriend outside the residence, according to a police report reviewed by CNN.

The lawyer said the officers pointed weapons at family members during the response. Police are investigating the swatting incident, and the FBI is also examining the events, according to Giuffra.

The initial emergency call claimed that “someone was killing people in the house.”

According to the police report, the woman’s father emerged from the home and shouted, “I’m the dad. What’s going on?” He then told officers the family was “being threatened by numerous unknown people.”

Giuffra described how the encounter unfolded and why it intensified the family’s fears.

“Luckily the brother was in his car, (he) put his hands up,” Giuffra told CNN.

He said the woman’s boyfriend was also caught up in the police response.

“(Doe’s) boyfriend got thrown on the ground,” Giuffra said.

The attorney added that the woman’s father faced a direct threat from the officers’ weapons.

“guns put in his face,” Giuffra said, describing the encounter.

Giuffra warned that the situation could have ended in a fatal confrontation.

“If you had a trigger-happy cop, or somebody had done the wrong thing, somebody could have ended up dead,” he said.

The false emergency report followed other threatening communications. According to Giuffra and two police reports reviewed by CNN, the woman received a separate phone call shortly before officers arrived. The caller reportedly claimed to share a first name with one of the seven men named in her civil complaint.

Police reports described how she reacted to the repeated calls.

She “began panicking” because “because (her phone) wouldn’t stop ringing.”

Giuffra said the threats had extended beyond his client to members of her family. His wife also received a threatening call that evening, he told CNN.

“These people have done so much research into (Doe),” Giuffra said.

The attorney also shared an audio recording of a call he said was placed to his office Wednesday afternoon. In the recording, a man identified himself as “the person who called your client.”

The caller then issued a threat connected to the lawsuit.

“I’m telling you guys simply, I think you should advise your client to withdraw the case. Otherwise blood will be shed.”

Giuffra said his client had become increasingly frightened as threats, attempts to expose her personal information and hostile online reactions accumulated. He described her emotional state during a Wednesday phone interview with CNN.

“I don’t think she’s in a good spot now,” Giuffra said.

He emphasized the fear she was experiencing.

“She’s scared,” he said.

The attorney said the family’s perception of the danger had changed as the threats escalated from online hostility to an incident involving armed officers at their home.

“Before (this week), it was just a lunatic fringe, which you can be dismissive of,” Giuffra said.

He contrasted that earlier situation with the swatting incident.

“Now it’s somebody taking real steps to harm you, and that’s pretty frightening,” he said.

The lawsuit, filed in September, contains 101 pages and alleges that members of the Xi chapter of Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity drugged and sexually assaulted the woman in October 2024. It further alleges that fraternity members invited others to participate in the assault through a group chat.

The civil complaint names Cornell University, the fraternity, seven fraternity members and other parties. It also accuses the university of failing to protect the woman and adequately discipline the accused students, all of whom deny wrongdoing.

The allegations have prompted scrutiny of Cornell, its campus police department and the Tompkins County District Attorney’s office over their initial handling of the case. On Wednesday, Cornell students held a seven-hour sit-in protest on campus, reflecting growing anger surrounding the allegations and the institution’s response.