Make New York Post a Preferred Source A Cornell University student accused in a bombshell rape lawsuit admitted he had sex with the accuser — but claimed the encounter was consensual, his lawyer said Thursday.
Attorney Tara Davis, who represents Gillio Lopes, acknowledged on “The Megyn Kelly Show” podcast that her client had sex with the woman identified as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, but disputed that he sexually assaulted her.
Asked by host Megyn Kelly whether Lopes denied having sex with Doe during the alleged October 2024 encounter at Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity house, Davis replied: “No.”
“And his defense is that it was consensual?” Kelly asked.
Doe’s 101-page civil complaint, filed last month in Manhattan Supreme Court, names Lopes and six other then-members of Cornell’s Xi Chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity, accusing them of sexual assault stemming from a night of drinking, drug use and what began as a consensual threesome on Oct. 19, 2024.
The lawsuit alleges Lopes entered a room where Doe was with two other fraternity members, grabbed her away from one of the men and kissed her before he and another defendant had sex with her without her consent.
“That’s just not factual,” Davis told Kelly after the host read portions of those allegations on air.
“It’s not what was presented in the hearing through any of the testimony or the evidence,” Davis said, referring to Cornell’s private disciplinary proceeding.
“It’s just not factual, and it’s just mischaracterized.”
Davis said the university’s investigation produced an approximately 1,500-page record, involved roughly 50 witness interviews and culminated in 12-and-a-half days of hearings — far more material, she argued, than was reflected in Doe’s civil complaint.
Lopes was ultimately suspended by Cornell and received additional “educational sanctions,” including an assignment that involved an essay, Davis said.
She pushed back on claims that essay-writing constituted the entirety of his punishment.
“He received a suspension period in addition to some educational sanctions,” Davis said. “One of which included a component involving an essay.”
Cornell has publicly said its disciplinary process in the case resulted in expulsions and suspensions but has not disclosed the punishment imposed on each student by name.
Davis declined to detail precisely which university policy violations Lopes was found responsible for, saying only that he “was found responsible for some violations of their policy.”
She also disputed a key part of Doe’s account involving ketamine.
The lawsuit alleges several of the fraternity members handled or consumed what Doe was told was ketamine during the night. Lopes, however, did not use drugs that night, Davis told Kelly.
“That is not true,” Davis said when Kelly asked about the allegation that Lopes was among the men who snorted ketamine off of Doe’s body.
Davis added that she believed Cornell’s hearing panel found that Lopes was not involved in ketamine use that night.
The lawyer also said Doe was not incapacitated when Lopes had sex with her.
“When my client was involved earlier in the evening, at the earlier end of these events, she was not incapacitated as far as we saw through all the testimony, her own testimony, if memory included, as well as the evidence,” Davis said.
Pressed later about claims that Doe would have appeared severely drunk or high to Lopes, Davis said: “That’s not how she was presenting, and the evidence will show that she was not presenting in a way that would have suggested that she was not aware of what was happening.”
Davis also said Lopes was not participating in a sickening Chi Phi Snapchat exchange — including one message that said there was “free p—y” upstairs — that has emerged as a focus of public outrage over the case.
According to the lawyer, Lopes was not active in the group and first saw the messages when investigators showed them to him during a February 2025 interview.
“He was not on there. He was not active in that group,” Davis said.
Davis said the publicity surrounding the lawsuit has dramatically changed life for her client, who is back on campus after completing his suspension.
“His name, his reputation, everything has been affected by this,” she said, adding that his family has also been targeted online and that Lopes has safety concerns.
The seven men have not been criminally charged. But Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced on Monday that his office was reopening its criminal review and preparing to present evidence to a grand jury after
Davis said she believes the renewed scrutiny should not be confused with proof of what happened.
“There’s a lot more that needs to be considered,” she told Kelly.
“I would just, you know, encourage people to be perhaps a bit more open-minded and not immediately jump to conclusions about who did what and who’s guilty or not.”
The Post has sought comment from Doe’s lawyers.
