Newly surfaced text messages in the Cornell University gang-rape lawsuit show the accuser, identified as “Jane Doe,” discussing heavy ketamine use on the night she says she was assaulted by members of the Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024.
TMZ published the messages this week, exchanged between Doe and one of the men she has accused. In one, she wrote: “[I]f you have any regrets or anything you want to talk about i am always here to talk about it cause that was a lot. i really do love u and matt and i promise i wont get quiet and weird w u like i did last time.” The reference to “Matt” appears to point to another man named in her accusations, to whom she reportedly sent a similarly reassuring message afterward.
A separate message, also reported by TMZ, reads: “ps. i’m not sure if u remember but i did ket off your d–k at some point? [A]nd i honestly think that was one of the most insane/jaw dropping moments of the night.” “Ket” refers to ketamine. Doe’s own lawsuit indicates she snorted a significant amount of the drug that night.
According to public filings and reporting, Doe, 20 at the time, had been drinking at a sorority house and visited several bars before going to the Chi Phi house, where she met a male friend and agreed to a threesome. What followed, by her account, expanded to include additional men and drug use. The full details of that night remain disputed, and a civil lawsuit as well as a potential criminal case are now pending.
Doe has said in other messages, sent in the days after the incident, that she could only “sleep and cry all day.” That reaction is not unique to sexual assault victims. Anyone who has taken a hard drug like ketamine and come down from it describes something similar — a crash marked by depression and anxiety, often made worse when risky behavior occurred while under the influence.
Adults, male or female, are free to drink and use drugs as they choose. A 20-year-old is legally an adult who can vote, enlist, and drink with a fake ID if she likes. But every choice carries consequences, and mixing alcohol, hard drugs, and sex with strangers at a fraternity house is a combination that invites exactly the kind of chaos and regret now playing out in court.
Nobody can say yet, and may never be able to say, exactly what happened inside that fraternity house. But the lesson sitting in plain view in these text messages has nothing to do with legal theories of consent. It is simpler than that: stay away from hard drugs, and situations like this become far less likely.
