A New York state judge has declined to issue a gag order against the attorney representing a Cornell University student known only as Jane Doe, who is suing the school and its Chi Phi fraternity chapter over an alleged 2024 sexual assault — but the judge used the ruling to warn that online efforts to identify the woman have to stop.

State Supreme Court Justice Phaedra Perry-Bond sealed court filings that contained addresses and other identifying material, directing Doe's lawyers to submit redacted versions going forward, according to Courthouse News. She stopped short of barring Doe's attorney from speaking publicly about the case, but said that "given the notoriety of doxing related to this case," every party should take care to guard against outside harassment.

A case that has drawn online sleuths

Doe's lawyers say she has been targeted by internet users trying to figure out her real identity since the civil suit was filed, and that at least three women who were wrongly identified as her have themselves faced harassment as a result. New York law allows plaintiffs in sexual assault lawsuits to proceed under a pseudonym, precisely to avoid this kind of exposure.

The lawsuit accuses seven members of Cornell's Chi Phi chapter of assaulting Doe at a 2024 fraternity event and names the university as a defendant for allegedly mishandling her report. All seven men have denied wrongdoing. One of them, former chapter president Orazio Petito, was dismissed from the case with prejudice on October 20 after it emerged he had not actually held that role at the time of the alleged assault.

GIVEN THE NOTORIETY OF DOXING RELATED TO THIS CASE

The civil suit runs alongside a reopened criminal investigation into the same underlying allegations, after prosecutors revisited the case earlier this fall. Cornell has said it takes all reports of sexual misconduct seriously and is cooperating with the legal process, but has not commented on the specific allegations given the pending litigation.

Doe's attorneys have argued publicly that the wave of attempted doxing has had a chilling effect on their client and on other survivors watching the case, while lawyers for the fraternity brothers maintain their clients deserve the same due process as any other defendants and have objected to what they call one-sided characterizations of the case in the press.

No trial date has been set in the civil case. The sealing order takes effect immediately, and both sides are expected back in court as the discovery process continues alongside the separate criminal probe.