Internet Mob Targets Wrong Family After Cornell 7 Lawsuit Mix-Up
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
There are two Matthew Ingalls in this story, and only one of them is accused of anything. The internet couldn’t tell the difference. A family in some quiet town now has to worry about their front door because a court docket listing matched a name, and the mob took it from there.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
The family of a man who never attended Cornell University says it has faced threats and harassment after mistakenly receiving lawsuit papers intended for another Matthew Ingalls, a former student accused of participating in a fraternity gang rape.
The family’s home address appeared on the official court docket, helping online users target the wrong Matthew Ingalls, according to The Free Press. Victoria Ingalls, the unrelated man’s mother, told the outlet she opened her door on Saturday night to find a man handing her a 101-page complaint intended for the other Matthew Ingalls, one of seven men accused of sexually assaulting a female classmate at the Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.
An associate at the law firm representing the plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, told The Free Press that the firm was working with the court to correct the mistake. But the family was already facing harassment.
Online users had circulated names, addresses, and information about relatives of the accused men, including information belonging to the unrelated Ingalls family. Victoria Ingalls’ 26-year-old daughter received both a photograph of the former Cornell student named in the lawsuit and a photograph of her own brother’s house.
Victoria Ingalls told The Free Press, “My family’s been terrorized, threatened, and harassed.” She added, “I am just amazed at the way people behave. I can’t believe that people will just look someone up on the internet, take a phone number, and start texting someone or calling someone and saying the vile things they’re saying.
You don’t even know if you have the right person. You’re creating more victims.” The harassment comes as Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has reopened the investigation into the alleged assault following the filing of Doe’s civil lawsuit.
In her complaint, Doe alleges she arrived at the fraternity house too intoxicated to consent to sexual activity. She says fraternity members pressured her to take ketamine, supplied additional alcohol and marijuana, and repeatedly sexually assaulted her.
The complaint alleges that one member sent a Snapchat message encouraging others to join and that men poured ketamine onto her body and snorted it. Doe alleges two men later moved her to another room and raped her before she lost consciousness around 5:45 a.m.
Three of the accused men have denied the allegations through their attorneys. Create a free account to join the conversation!
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
There are two Matthew Ingalls in this story, and only one of them is accused of anything. The internet couldn’t tell the difference. A family in some quiet town now has to worry about their front door because a court docket listing matched a name, and the mob took it from there. The real Matthew Ingalls, the Cornell student facing a lawsuit over an alleged fraternity gang rape, will have his day in court. The other Matthew Ingalls never even went to the school. That didn’t stop people from digging up the family’s home address and making their lives hell.
Anyone with a smartphone thinks they’re a detective now. And too many news outlets are happy to feed them names and addresses without waiting for the part where we verify who we’re actually pointing at. This isn’t justice. It’s performance. The lawsuit itself is serious, and the accusations deserve a real investigation. But the guilty verdict was supposed to come after evidence, not before it, and it was never supposed to be delivered by a crowd of strangers yelling at the wrong house.
The family said they have received threats and harassment. For what? For sharing a name with someone they’ve never met? The court system filed the paperwork wrong, and the internet ran with it. That’s the part nobody wants to talk about. When the mob inevitably moves on to the next outrage, this family will still be picking up the pieces. The rest of us should at least have the decency to slow down and ask whether we’re sure we have the right person. About half the time, we don’t..
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.