What the Cornell 7 Texts Reveal
It was only then, weeks after the fact, that Jane Doe began describing herself as a victim, culminating in her report to the campus police. In a now–heavily criticized decision, the district attorney found insufficient evidence at the time for a criminal prosecution, while an independent investigation by Cornell resulted in expulsions for two of the accused, a ban from campus for another, and various lesser punishments for the remaining four. It’s unclear what prompted Jane Doe’s choice to renew these same allegations two years later, in the form of a civil suit—and the more evidence, like these text messages, that emerges as a result, the more difficult the truth becomes to discern. Instead, we have multiple competing versions of the same story, many of them told by the same person, at different times and for different reasons.
