Jane Doe’s lawsuit has sparked uproar and criticism of Cornell University and the DA’s handling of her allegations. (Heather Ainsworth for NBC News)A Cornell University student gave campus police leads in the alleged rape of Jane Doe in 2024 but expressed dismay over how the authorities handled the case. The student, who spoke to NBC News on Sunday on condition of anonymity over concerns about repercussions, said she first heard about allegations that Doe was raped as a rumor on campus about 24 to 48 hours after the incident. Doe, who filed a lawsuit last month, claimed she was plied with alcohol and ketamine and gang-raped at the Chi Phi fraternity house the night of Oct. 19-20. The student recalled rumors that Doe was planning to have a threesome but that it had “gone off the rails,” and she remembers being “really horrified by it.” “From that night, I think, we just kind of started, like, hearing more,” the student said.Talk of the alleged sexual assault became widespread on campus after the school issued a crime safety alert about a report of a sexual assault at a fraternity.“The thing I think we all feel, like, betrayed in regards to is that, like, it wasn’t handled,” she said. “When we got the police report, I think we all assumed it was being, you know, it would be, like, handled properly, yeah, and it was, like, in good hands.”The student, who discussed details corroborated by documents reviewed by NBC News, said she and a friend initially gave a tip to authorities after the crime alert was issued. Police later called her and asked her to come in and speak with them days after Doe reported the incident to Cornell police on Nov. 8. Police records obtained by NBC News showed that Cornell police spoke to multiple witnesses and fielded anonymous tips about the allegations of a gang rape at the Chi Phi fraternity house — but that the information wasn't referred to the local prosecutor for review in his deciding whether to bring charges. (Heather Ainsworth for NBC News)The student said she decided to go to police after she saw screenshots of a Chi Phi group message on Snapchat and because “it felt like the right thing to do if we could help this girl.” Doe’s lawsuit included a screenshot of a Chi Phi Snapchat group message that said there was “free p----” in a room in the frat house where Doe was the night she alleges she was assaulted. “That was, like, when I kind of internally made the decision. OK, like, I’m taking this all in, and then I’m going to the police tomorrow,” the student said. She recalled sitting with one or two officers for about half an hour during her interview with police.“They seemed fairly competent. It seemed like a normal interview process to me,” she said.She said she walked them through everything she knew, including that fraternity members were messaging about the events of that evening with Doe and about potential witnesses. She also gave police secondhand information about drug use at Chi Phi and said she is familiar with the frat house and believed she knew where ketamine was alleged to be kept. “I guess I assumed that, like, I wasn’t enough,” the student said.Cornell did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday on the student’s account to police. In a video statement Saturday, President Michael I. Kotlikoff called the allegations “deeply disturbing” and said they raise questions about the investigations that were conducted. He said he welcomes an independent review of how the university handled the matter, which will be conducted by an outside law firm.Police records obtained by NBC News showed that Cornell police spoke to multiple witnesses and fielded anonymous tips about the allegations of a gang rape at the fraternity house — but that the information was not referred to the local prosecutor for review in his deciding whether to bring charges. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten told NBC News on Friday that the interviews that were flagged “were each of the frat members declining to speak on the advice of their attorney.” He did not respond to a follow-up request asking whether he was told about interviews with other fraternity members in addition to tips from callers.Van Houten ultimately determined the allegations did not warrant charges because of a lack of criminality.Doe’s suit has sparked uproar and criticism of Cornell and Van Houten’s handling of her allegations. Van Houten has since agreed to reopen his inquiry into Doe’s allegations, but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul last week named state Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the matter. The student who spoke with campus police criticized how the department handled the matter. While students believed there was an active investigation into Doe’s claims, people continued going to Chi Phi, including the room at the center of the allegations. Within Greek life at Cornell, “rumors spread fast,” the student said, and even if you did not know Doe or the men, “you knew someone who did.” Doe’s lawsuit named Cornell, Chi Phi and the seven fraternity brothers among the defendants. None of the seven has been criminally charged. The fraternity was suspended from campus, and it remains barred.Cornell said in a statement Sept. 28 that it conducted a thorough, monthslong Title IX investigation that handed down “a range of sanctions which included expulsions and suspensions” from the university.Attorneys for two of the seven men have denied to NBC News that they sexually assaulted Doe. An attorney for a third man denied the allegations to ABC News. NBC News has not received responses to requests for comment from the five other men. Chi Phi’s national fraternity condemned sexual assault and drug and alcohol abuse in a statement Wednesday. It said that the fraternity members Doe named were kicked out of the organization and that the national fraternity permanently expelled the chapter. “At every level of Chi Phi, we will take steps like these whenever they are needed to protect the integrity of our fraternity and the safety of our communities,” said Trey Robb, the national fraternity’s interim executive director.Some of the men faced backlash as talk spread on campus.Two of the Chi Phi brothers named in the suit were kicked out of their rugby club after the allegations came to light, a former teammate told NBC News. “We kicked [them] off the team immediately before the school expelled them,” said the teammate, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The teammate said he has participated in discussions among a group of current and former rugby players about responding publicly to Doe’s lawsuit. “As a team, it was important for us to support this victim,” he said. “We are extremely, extremely distraught.”Cornell Rugby said in a statement that it was “deeply disturbed” by the allegations and that its thoughts were with Doe.“Players who were known to be connected with the alleged events were permanently removed from the team and alumni network as soon as their affiliation with the incident was established,” it said. No current members of the team have been affiliated with Chi Phi, the statement said.As news of the allegations spread, some discussions were supportive of Doe, but others shamed her in conversations, a former member of Doe’s sorority, Delta Delta Delta, told NBC News. “Some people were sympathizing with Jane Doe, but also, people didn’t know details,” said the former member, who has graduated and requested anonymity out of a concern for privacy.Another student and former member of Tri Delta told NBC News that she recalled learning about the incident through rumors and described the student body as “really pissed off about it.”That student said that she was at the same sorority-hosted event the evening of Oct. 19 that Doe attended and which was referred to in her lawsuit but that Doe disappeared during the evening.A few days later, the student said, Doe said people were spreading rumors about her and she was not sure what to make of it, “and it just seemed like everybody was very confused at the moment.” A third former Tri Delta member told NBC News that the campus learned of the incident from the university alert and described students feeling “shock” and “really appalled.”She, too, is critical of how Cornell handled the matter. “I think that shows a lack of respect for their female students and kind of makes it less enticing to attend the university,” she said. Today, within the sorority there is a resounding wave of support for Doe, she said, as well as “frustration and anger.” Tri Delta said in a statement on behalf of its national organization and its Cornell chapter, “As an organization, we are committed to supporting women and victims of sexual violence.”If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. The hotline, run by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), can put you in contact with your local rape crisis center. You can also access RAINN’s online chat service at https://www.rainn.org/get-help.This article was originally published on NBCNews.comThis article originally appeared on NBC News at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cornell-student-gave-police-leads-alleged-rape-feels-betrayed-handling-rcna601520