Update, Nov. 4, 7:12 p.m.: This story has been updated to include a comment on the incident from Noah Rebei ’25.
Noah Rebei ’25 was arrested by campus police after being discovered hiding under the bed of a female resident in William Keeton House, according to a Monday statement from Cornell University Police Department. He allegedly injured a female resident while fleeing the room after 911 was called on the night of Oct. 30.
Rebei denied that he assaulted anyone and called the incident a “terrible decision” and a prank gone wrong in an email to The Sun.
Rebei was not arrested immediately, but he was identified and taken into custody by Cornell Police on Oct. 31. He was charged with second-degree criminal trespassing and third-degree assault — both of which are classified as Class A misdemeanors — before being turned over to the Tompkins County Sheriff on Nov. 1.
Rebei was released pending his trial and issued an order of protection, which directs him to neither contact nor harm the individuals involved in his arrest. He is due back in Ithaca City Court on Wednesday.
Rebei called the incident a “terrible decision” in which he entered an open dorm with the “misguided intention of scaring its residents as a prank.” When he heard people approaching, he “realized the severity of [his] actions” and, in a panic, hid instead of leaving and identifying himself. Rebei wrote that he hid in the room for “no more than half an hour.”
Rebei also clarified that he did not take any photos or videos and showed his phone to police to verify this. He also “did not put [his] hands on” any of the residents when he tried to leave after being discovered, and he has fully cooperated with law enforcement, according to his statement.
“I am deeply sorry for the emotional and physical harm I caused because of my actions,” Rebei wrote.
A senior from Stoneham, Massachusetts, Rebei studies computer science at Cornell, according to his now-deleted LinkedIn profile. He was a teaching assistant for CS4110: Programming Languages and Logics in Spring 2024 and worked on a video game development project team in Spring 2023.
Angelina Tang ’28 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at [email protected].
Maryam Ismail ’27 contributed reporting.