Megyn Kelly Claims Cornell 7 Accuser's 'Anger Over Feeling Rejected by the Fraternity' Caused Alleged Victim to 'Change Her Story'

Attorney Tara Davis, representing accused Cornell University student Gillio Lopes, appeared on camera for the first time on “The Megyn Kelly Show” on Thursday, October 1.

Lopes, now a senior at Cornell, is one of seven fraternity brothers — collectively dubbed the “Cornell 7” in the media — who were named in a bombshell, 101-page civil lawsuit filed by a former student (“Jane Doe”) alleging she was drugged and gang-r----- at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.

During the extensive interview, Davis and Megyn Kelly broke down several key aspects of the defense and the ongoing investigation.

Davis, a partner at Nesenoff & Miltenberg, confirmed on air that her client did have s-- with the accuser during the encounter, but firmly maintained that the sexual activity was entirely consensual and involved no drug use.

Kelly noted how Jane Doe initially never used the word “r---” or “assault” following the incident, admitting in uncovered texts that “none of the sexual stuff was illegal.”

“To me, this is evidence of a woman who was involved in a consensual exchange that then her friends, campus rumor mill, and ultimately anger over feeling rejected by the fraternity, some of whose members she was with, led this woman to change her story,” Kelly said.

Davis replied, “I think those all sound accurate, and I do recall those text messages, and I agree with the general sentiment.”

She clarified, adding, “So they wouldn't find them responsible for r--- because that's not necessarily the terminology used. It would have been ‘sexual assault’ that they would classify it as.”

Davis argued that Cornell University had already conducted an exhaustive Title IX investigation producing 1,500 pages of records and 50 witness interviews. She alleged that Jane Doe’s current public civil complaints differ drastically from her initial voluntary statements given during that investigation, where Doe reportedly described the encounters as conscious and consensual.

Both Kelly and Davis heavily critiqued the university’s investigative processes and examined the public backlash carefully, emphasizing concerns about due process for the accused students. Davis noted that while Lopes completed a suspension and educational sanctions from the university, the facts would be thoroughly tested in the newly active litigation.

“Yeah, he received a suspension period in addition to some educational sanctions. One of those included an essay component, which I think is where people got that information and ran with the assumption that that was the full sanction. It was not. He did receive a suspension period,” Davis said.

She elaborated on the essays the Cornell 7 allegedly had to write following the incident, saying, “They had essays, some of them to write. Again, I don't know every sanction because I wasn't privy to all the materials, but that came in combination with a number of other sanctions. It was just one piece of the sanctions received.”

Davis also disputed the notion that her client snorted Ketamine off the victim’s body.

“That is not true,” she said. “He was found responsible for some violations of their policy. I don't know that I want to go into too much detail on that.”

The interview came immediately after Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced his office would reopen the criminal investigation and present evidence to a grand jury following the public pressure generated by the civil suit.

Davis said the public will discover more to the story in the civil suit.

“I think they need to understand that there's a lot more to what happened, and again, I'm not speaking for every defendant. I'm not saying there was no wrongdoing, or things that happened that maybe shouldn't have. But there's a lot more that needs to be considered, and this is all going to come out through the case,” Davis said.