Students protest Cornell's response to gang rape complaint

ITHACA, New York (AP) — Cornell students thronged a campus plaza to protest the university's response to allegations of sexual assault at a fraternity house, and the school's main administration building was splashed with graffiti and damaged overnight.

At a demonstration that overflowed the large space in front of the school's student center, students and others wore purple ribbons and held signs with such messages as “support survivors, expel rapists” and “Justice 4 every Jane Doe" — the name by which the woman who reported the assault is known in court papers. Others watched from pathways, windows, and a nearby hill.

“Too often, we are met with silence, we are met with statements, we are met with procedures, but not enough support,” student Athena Holloway told the crowd. “How much does it take for our university to stand with survivors?”

The Ivy League school has been trying to quell a firestorm — on campus and beyond — over its handling of the alleged 2024 gang rape. Early Monday, the university found signs of the anger on the very walls of its administrative headquarters.

Holes were knocked into one of the building's glass doors, and the walls beside them were marked with red-painted messages condemning patriarchy and the Ivy League school’s handling of sexual assaults, news media photos showed. Later Monday, the graffiti was removed and the door was boarded up.

Cornell spokesperson Kyle Kimball said in a statement that the university was investigating and that “damaging property is not the answer” to Cornellians' “frustration and strong emotions.” Campus police referred questions to his office, which declined to provide more detail on the incident.

A then-student alleges that she was sexually assaulted by multiple Chi Phi fraternity members in October 2024 after being pressured into drinking and taking drugs.

The woman, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, recently sued the university, seven former students, the fraternity and others. Her lawsuit said that she became fully incapacitated as fraternity members assaulted her, and that one man sent others a message inviting them to participate.

“I felt like bait. I felt like lions around me. It just was a totally debilitating place to be in,” she told Cornell investigators last year, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press.

Lawyers for two of the former students denied they participated in a sexual assault. Attempts by The Associated Press to reach the other men or their representatives have been unsuccessful. Court records show that some of the accused students, when interviewed by Cornell investigators, described the sexual activity as consensual.

Shortly before she went to Cornell police in November 2024, Jane Doe recorded a phone call with one of the men she says raped her, ABC News reported Monday, saying it had obtained the recording. The network played portions, containing only what it said was his voice, and recounted other parts of the conversation in writing.

According to ABC, the man told her that after dancing with her for five minutes or less, he suggested a three-person encounter. He maintained that she agreed to it, and that he then fetched the second Chi Phi member from the dance floor.

Her lawsuit says she was too intoxicated to give consent.

On the call, she tried to pinpoint who else later came into the room, ABC said. The man suggested both he and she might be misremembering something that's “not true,” but she countered that she recalled looking up and seeing “too many people” there.

“What y’all did would be classified as gang rape,” she told him at one point, according to the network, which said she had provided the recording to the university.

The suit has drawn national attention to what Cornell, its police force and the local district attorney did after she told the campus police in November 2024 she “can say with 100% confidence I was raped.”

No criminal charges have been filed. The Chi Phi chapter at Cornell was shut down, and the Ivy League university has said it expelled some students and suspended others. In a statement last week, the administration bristled about the “false narrative that there were minimal consequences in this case.”

Students, however, have demanded more accountability and transparency, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has said Jane Doe was “failed by people and institutions" including the Cornell police and local District Attorney Matthew Van Houten.

Hochul appointed the state attorney general last week to take over a criminal investigation that Van Houten had reopened days earlier, and the governor called for an independent review of Cornell’s handling of the matter.

After the week's developments, Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff released an apologetic video Saturday, saying that Jane Doe's account “raises heartbreaking and troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanization and aspects of party culture, alcohol and drug use.”

Kotlikoff reaffirmed his support for an independent review of the university's actions and vowed more transparency and a commitment to "finding the answers our community deserves.”

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.

The Chi Phi fraternity house is seen at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

A sign stands outside the Chi Phi fraternity house at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

The Chi Phi fraternity house is seen at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

A sign is displayed on a door at Day Hall after damage and graffiti overnight was cleaned up at Cornell University, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, in Ithaca, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)

A Cornell University police car is seen parked on campus at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A former music pastor in Ohio who appeared briefly on “American Idol” was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Monday after a jury convicted him of murdering his wife while he was having an affair.

Prosecutors said Caleb Flynn, 40, staged a home invasion in February after shooting Ashley Flynn, a 37-year-old schoolteacher and volleyball coach, then claimed she was killed by a burglar.

In his 2013 appearance on “American Idol,” Flynn told TV viewers about how his wife had encouraged him to chase his dreams on the singing competition. He did not advance to the main competition in Hollywood.

With tears rolling down his cheeks, Flynn apologized in court to his family, starting with his two daughters.

“I made vows to Ashley on our wedding day. I failed in those vows,” he said.

Although he admitted he lied about many things, Flynn remained adamant that he was innocent.

“As I stand here before God, who is my ultimate judge, I am not lying when I say I did not kill my wife,” he said.

Miami County Common Pleas Judge Jeannine Pratt said she was deeply disturbed that Flynn used his faith to hide his “deceit” and “lust.”

She quoted a victim statement from one of the daughters, read aloud moments earlier by a family member, asking: “What did Ashley ever do to make you hate her so much?”

During closing arguments, prosecutors told jurors that Flynn wanted out of his marriage when he shot his wife at their house in Tipp City, a suburb north of Dayton. The couple’s two daughters were home with their father when police arrived.

He sent a text message to his lover the night before the shooting, saying, “I choose you. I’m free. Actions will come tomorrow,” prosecutors said.

During the trial, Alleigha Botner testified she met Flynn in 2022 while she was a 20-year-old intern at his church and had an affair with him for more than a year. She told jurors that Flynn said he hated his wife and had thoughts of killing her.

Jurors also heard AI-generated love songs that prosecutors said he made for Botner. Flynn didn’t testify on his own behalf, nor did anybody else.

The gun used to kill Ashley Flynn was not found at the scene, and his attorney told jurors that investigators found no evidence that Caleb Flynn fired a gun that day. Prosecutors said his fingerprints and DNA were at the scene and that his devices showed him moving around the house, even though he claimed he was asleep at the time of the shooting.

The jury found him guilty of murder, felonious assault and tampering with evidence.

This image taken from pool court video shows 40-year-old Caleb Flynn listening to the judge reading out the jury's verdict at the Miami County Court of Common Pleas on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in Troy, Ohio. (Pool via AP)

Caleb Flynn listens to court proceedings inside the Miami County Court of Common Pleas on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, in Troy, Ohio. (AP Photo, Pool)