‘Cornell 7’ fraternity brother apologizes to Jane Doe about ‘backlash’ in newly obtained phone call

A Cornell University fraternity brother accused of gang-raping a student apologized to the alleged victim over the “backlash” she was receiving, according to a newly obtained phone call.

Winston Lee, one of the seven members of Chi Phi named in last month’s lawsuit, allegedly snorted ketamine off the body of the Jane Doe who filed the suit.

When Jane Doe called him, roughly three weeks after the reported incident in October 2024, Lee seemed apologetic at first.

Protesters take to Cornell’s campus to protest the Cornell 7 and to support Jane Doe in Cornell, N.Y., on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. Matt Symons for NY Post

“I’m so sorry about all like the backlash you’re getting from this,” Lee says in the call dated Nov. 7, 2024, audio of which was obtained by ABC News.

Jane Doe tells him she “was completely and totally intoxicated and then given multiple sedatives,” before “upwards of eight to 10 men” came into the room at the frat house.

“This is classified as a gang rape,” Doe tells Lee, at which point his tone becomes defensive.

“What’s the purpose for why you decided to call me?” Lee asks Doe.

Lee was one of the brothers who posted a message in a fraternity Snapchat group chat on the night of the alleged incident, after another student, Jonathan Newell, reportedly wrote that there was “free p—y” in one of the rooms.

But Lee told Doe that he was unaware of what was happening when he entered the room.

A screenshot shows the “Chi Phi Actives” Snapchat group on Oct. 20, 2024. A lawsuit alleges Cornell fraternity members were offered “essay” mitigation following an alleged gang rape. Obtained by NY Post
The Chi Phi Fraternity house is pictured on the Cornell University campus on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Ithaca, NY. Lone Pine Press for NY Post

“There was nothing to say that … anything was happening in that room or anything,” he says in the call.

On the same day she called Lee, Doe also phoned Matthew Ingalls, another of the seven Chi Phi fraternity brothers she names in her lawsuit.

The following day, Nov. 8, she went to the Cornell campus police and reported that she had been raped.

Lee was suspended from Cornell for two years following the incident, but, along with the other six frat brothers, faced no criminal charges.

Two students, Ingalls and Newell, were expelled.

Details of an attorney for Lee were not immediately available.

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