National Defense

US Marine Mistakenly Named In Cornell Rape Case, Now Family Facing Threats

U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va. (Screen Capture/National Park Service)

After being mistakenly served a lawsuit meant for one of the suspects in the alleged 2024 gang rape at Cornell University, a U.S. Marine staff sergeant and his family are facing threats.

On the evening of Sept. 26, Victoria Ingalls heard a knock on the door of her New York home and was handed a 101-page lawsuit intended for someone with the same name as her son, 23-year-old Staff Sergeant Matthew Ingalls. However, Ingalls never attended Cornell University and was serving as an active duty Marine during the alleged 2024 sexual assault.

The intended recipient of the lawsuit — also named Matthew Ingalls — was one of the seven Chi Phi fraternity members accused, the Free Press reported.

Shortly before the lawsuit was served, Ingalls and his family members began receiving bizarre messages.

“[Matthew] started getting a lot of messages asking him if he ever went to Cornell, calling him a rapist, all kinds of crazy aggressive messages … Then my daughter was getting messages as well, and she didn’t know what was going on,” Mrs. Ingalls told military news outlet Stars and Stripes.

“Sgt. Matthew R. Ingalls, assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 26, Combat Logistics Regiment 27, has been mistakenly identified by members of the public and media as one of the civilians allegedly involved in the Cornell University civil lawsuit and criminal investigation,” a spokesperson for the 2d Marine Logistics Group at Camp Lejeune told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement.

“This mistaken identification has come at significant personal cost to Sgt. Ingalls and his family, including several threats of physical harm and the doxxing of personal information,” the spokesperson added. “Sgt. Matthew R. Ingalls is a different person from the Matthew Ingalls accused of sexual assault in Jane Doe’s civil lawsuit. As Sgt. Ingalls and his family continue to be wrongly targeted, we request that the harassment of Sgt. Ingalls and his family cease immediately while civilian authorities continue to investigate this matter.”

Ingalls currently serves as a machinist with Combat Logistics Battalion 26 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, according to Stars and Stripes. Officials at Camp Lejeune released a statement to personnel and families clarifying that Ingalls was not the individual in the suit and was serving “honorably” at the time of the alleged assault.

However, the harassment of the wrong Mr. Ingalls has not ceased. According to his mother, “The people that are posting his address, that are saying, ‘I will find you. I will end you. I will kill you,’ types of things are the scariest,” according to Stars and Stripes.

She also told the outlet that trash and other items are being thrown at their family home. The Ingalls family has since sought legal counsel.