Former Cornell fraternity president dropped from Jane Doe lawsuit
A former president of the Cornell University fraternity where a then-undergraduate student alleged she was gang raped in 2024 was dropped Tuesday from her civil lawsuit Tuesday after he was mistakenly identified as the chapter president at the time of the alleged attack.
"It is hereby stipulated by and between counsel for all parties that this matter is discontinued with prejudice as to Orazio Petito," a court filing said. "Furthermore, the plaintiff holds Mr. Petito, his counsel, harmless from any liens that are known and/or unknown at this time."
Petito was never accused of taking part in the alleged assault but was named in the lawsuit as the president of Cornell's Chi Phi fraternity chapter. He was not the fraternity president at the time the woman, known as Jane Doe, said she was assaulted in October 2024.
The then-undergraduate student made a complaint to campus police in November 2024, three weeks after the incident occurred, that she had been raped by a group of men at the Chi Phi fraternity house. She filed the civil suit against the men and the university alleging that she had been drugged and raped.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is conducting an investigation into the incident, and Cornell is also conducting an internal probe of its response to the allegations.
All seven fraternity brothers named in the civil lawsuit have denied wrongdoing and no criminal charges have been filed in the case.
"My client deserved to be released from this case," Petito's attorney, Eric Bernstein, told ABC News. "They had the wrong the guy and justice was served as far as Mr. Petito was concerned. We are all pleased with the outcome, and it was the right outcome."
