The Cornell Seven: The New Texts That Change Everything with Shannon Goldstein

Heather McDonald (0:07)

Hello and welcome to Juicy Crimes. Today's Juicy Crimes, I have Shannon McDonald Goldstein, my sister and criminal defense attorney. I do want to give an update on a couple of the crimes that we're covering since we did record it last week. The first crime we are covering is the Cornell Seven, where a Jane Doe has filed a lawsuit naming seven Chi Phi fraternity members for sexual assault for an incident that happened two years ago in the Chi Phi house on the campus of Cornell.

In the discussion that Shannon and I had, we really got into the culture of sorority and fraternity life. We are both members of a sorority, and what it was like 30 years ago, how it's changed and how it has not changed.

We get into the drug use, which is ketamine, something that neither of us have ever experienced, and something that the Jane Doe, the victim and the other participants partook in. So I'm doing a disclaimer about this because it is such a sensitive subject, and there have been protests, and originally the prosecutor in New York did not pursue the criminal case. Now it's being looked at by a different prosecutor. Her lawsuit is going forward. Since then, we've had more, since we've recorded, there's been a little bit more information that, you know, it looks very damaging to the men in the Chi Phi house. One is this horrible Snapchat that has been 57 members were on it, in which there were one made with a photo of the victim saying, come on in, whip it out, encouraging other men to come. And also she had a conversation, I think, maybe nine days after the incident, which was recorded, that has been released. And we are able to listen to it, I think via TMZ has it. And she recorded it because she was now realizing that she was lying to herself and something way worse had happened that night. And she talks to the original guy that she went to go meet, and they're having a conversation, and he says, you told me you were sober. You told me you were 100% sober. And he starts to walk her through what happened, that he popped the question for the threesome. She said, yes, he went and got this person whose name they blinked at, beeped out.

And they start having this conversation. Many people would think it was manipulative, maybe even gaslighting her. He's claiming he is not remembering it well either, because he was too on this ketamine. I know you love to shop as much as I do. That's why I'm so happy that I discovered Quince a few years ago, because everything there is 50 to 80% less than similar brands. And it's the best quality. Find the fall pieces you'll reach for most at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers, or go to quince.com.

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Shannon Goldstein (3:30)

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Heather McDonald (4:02)

You know, in there's many times that in not just sexual assault cases but in other cases where you try to convince yourself that something that that was bad that happened was really something that wasn't so bad. Maybe you got fired from a job and you were like, you know what, I was going to quit anyway. And I think maybe that is what happened with this young woman in the first days after this night versus when her mind and her clarity came forward. And she realized, no, the situation was a lot worse. It could have been what she heard about what was being discussed about her. It could have been other sorority sisters or friends that came to her and told her what they were hearing. It's a lot of things. And in Shannon and I discussing it, we really get very raw in discussing it. And what we think may or may not may have happened, why the school handled it the way they did, why the boys handled it the way they did, what happened to her leaving the school, going forward with this lawsuit. Also, she is suing the bar. She said she was at a bar before going to the Chi Phi house. The bar has now spoken and said, we did not serve her. They said, you know, she was under 21 and we did not serve her. So, there's a lot that's coming out all the time along with, you know, vandalism at the school, as well as protests at many college campuses all over, people wanting to ban fraternities together all over, all, you know, in every school.