A former Cornell University Chi Phi fraternity member is asking a New York judge to throw out all claims filed against him in a high-profile sexual assault lawsuit, arguing the allegations attributed to him fall far short of the broader accusations of rape detailed in the complaint.
Diego Sarabia filed the dismissal motion on Friday in response to a lawsuit brought by a woman identified as Jane Doe who filed suit on September 16 in New York state court. Sarabia was one of seven men she accused of participating in a gang rape at the Chi Phi fraternity house on the night of October 19 into October 20, 2024.
His attorney James C. Knox described the claims against his client as essentially amounting to a forced kiss and argued the conduct described does not meet the legal threshold required to invoke the extended statute of limitations Doe cited for certain sexual offenses. Knox also contended that the complaint failed to allege Sarabia supplied drugs or alcohol, participated in any of the described sexual encounters, or was even present for most of the alleged misconduct.
Doe accused Sarabia of grabbing her face, kissing her without consent and snorting ketamine off her body alongside other fraternity members during a drug and alcohol-fueled encounter in a room inside the fraternity house referred to as the alumni room.
Knox argued in the filing that the assault, battery and emotional distress claims were time-barred under a one-year statute of limitations and that the broader accusations in the nearly 600-paragraph complaint relied on collective language that lumped all seven defendants together without specific factual support for each individual.
Doe’s attorney Thomas Giuffra declined to comment on the motion. Giuffra had previously agreed to withdraw claims against the fraternity chapter’s acting president at the time of the alleged incident.
The case has triggered widespread scrutiny of Cornell’s handling of sexual misconduct on campus. Two students were expelled and others faced disciplinary action following an internal civil rights investigation. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten declined to file criminal charges in November 2024 after reviewing a statement in which Doe described some of the sexual activity that night as consensual.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul criticized that decision as inadequate and appointed state Attorney General Letitia James as a special prosecutor to independently investigate the allegations. Two of the accused men are currently seeking to disqualify James from overseeing the probe citing a social media comment she made about the case before her appointment.