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Aces guard Justine Pissott voiced her support for the student who accused seven Cornell University fraternity brothers of rape, while revealing in the same message that the WNBA player had been a victim of sexual assault herself.
Pissott posted a lengthy series of comments on her Instagram Story, showing her support for the unidentified woman suing Cornell and seven former Chi Pi fraternity members, alleging that she was drugged and gang-raped in 2024.
The rookie WNBA player, who played college basketball at Tennessee and Vanderbilt, posted that she was writing a “vulnerable message but something that I want to share.”
“As someone who has been drugged and rap**, the Cornell 7 situation has been really hard for me to see. It hits a place in me that I don’t talk about often,” Pissott wrote. “When something like this happens to you, it doesn’t just end when that night ends. You carry it with you. The confusion, the pieces you can’t remember, questioning yourself, blaming yourself, and trying to understand how someone could take advantage of you when you weren’t even able to protect yourself.
“And then you see people questioning survivors. Asking why they didn’t speak sooner, why they stayed quiet, why they acted a certain way afterward. But unless you’ve been through it, you really don’t understand what trauma can do to a person. There is no “right” way to respond to something that never should’ve happened to you in the first place.”
Pissott, a Toms River, N.J., native, did not provide any further details about what allegedly happened to her or when it occurred.
The second half of Pissott’s message focused on the current situation involving the horrific allegations made by the former Ivy League student, which have led to Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten reopening the case to seek a grand jury review.
“My heart truly hurts for the survivor in the Cornell 7 situation,” Pissott wrote. “I pray God covers her through all of this. I pray He protects her mind and her heart while something so painful and personal is being discussed by people who don’t even know her. I pray He gives her strength on the days where it feels like too much and reminds her that what was done to her will never define who she is. I don’t speak about my experience for sympathy. I speak about it because I know how lonely this kind of pain can feel. And if sharing even a small part of my story makes another survivor feel less alone, then it’s worth it.
“To her and every survivor carrying something similar, I see you. I’m praying for you. And I pray we continue creating a world where survivors feel safe enough to use their voice without being torn apart for how they survived.”
The handling of the disturbing case has caused widespread outrage toward Cornell and Van Houten, who has defended the initial decision not to further investigate the allegations following the victim’s initial statement to Cornell Police in 2024 after the alleged sexual assault.
Van Houten even went as far as to release the six-page statement the “Jane Doe” accuser made to campus cops in November 2024, roughly a week after the alleged gang assault, which several seasoned prosecutors described to The Post as being highly unusual.
“He is clearly trying to contain the public-relations nightmare,” former prosecutor Seth Zuckerman said.
Cornell has also defended its initial handling of the allegations and pushed back that no one had been punished. The school stated that some of the frat brothers had been suspended and expelled after an investigation by an internal disciplinary panel.
Thomas Giuffra, the accuser’s attorney, told The Post on Monday that two of the men were expelled.
Ithaca Mayor Robert Cantelmo announced on Monday a push to ban the issuance of city permits for the university’s Greek life and student activities, and Gov. Kathy Hochul called for a probe into how Cornell responded to the accusations.
“For any student to come forward after an experience like this takes extraordinary courage. No student should ever be left wondering whether the institutions meant to protect them will listen and act,” Hochul said in a statement Tuesday. “There are also serious questions about Cornell’s campus culture and its systems for prevention, reporting, and response.”
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