Accused Cornell University student asks for gag order

Lawyers for Diego Sarabia are seeking to prevent public comments about the case.

Lawyers for one of the men named in a civil lawsuit brought by a former Cornell University student who alleged she was sexually assaulted at a school fraternity in 2024 is asking a New York judge to impose a gag order in the case, arguing the publicity surrounding the case risks tainting potential jurors.

"Since this action began, Plaintiff's counsel has repeatedly addressed the merits through widely disseminated media statements," the motion said. "These statements present disputed allegations and interpretations of evidence to the public before discovery and trial."

A then-undergraduate student identified only as Jane Doe made a complaint to campus police in November 2024, three weeks after the incident occurred, that she had been raped by a group of men at the Chi Phi fraternity house. She has filed a civil suit against the men and the university alleging that she had been drugged and raped.

The case has rocked the university and started conversations about treatment of alleged sexual assault on college campuses across the country.

"Plaintiff's counsel has been trying his case in the media since filing the lawsuit," the motion alleged. "A full cataloguing of the media tour he has engaged in would be far lengthier than necessary to establish the potential risks these statements are incurring upon the fair administration of justice in this case and upon the parties."

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In a statement responding to the motion, Giuffra said, "The Defense has tried to rebut the claims in this case by engaging in a wholesale leaking of confidential documents, giving interviews calling Ms. Doe's story into question and calling her lawsuit immoral. These attempts to shift the narrative have not been successful."

Sarabia is accused in the lawsuit of grabbing and kissing Jane Doe before "pouring lines of Ketamine all over her body and snorting them." He has denied wrongdoing, and according to Cornell documents reviewed by ABC News, he previously argued that the interaction was consensual.

Judge Phaedra Perry-Bond agreed to seal some of the filings on Friday, condemning what she described as "misguided vigilantism."

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