Marine's Family Harassed Over Lawsuit Mix-Up

PHOTO CAPTION: A welcome sign stands outside Holcomb Gate at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Sgt. Matthew Ingalls, an active-duty Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune, was mistakenly connected through court-service records to a Cornell lawsuit intended for another man with the same name. U.S. Marine Corps file photo.

The family of an active-duty Marine at Camp Lejeune says it has been threatened and harassed after a 101-page lawsuit in a high-profile Cornell University sexual assault case was mistakenly served to their family because the Marine shares a name with one of the defendants.
Sgt. Matthew Ingalls, 23, is a New York native serving as a maintenance technician with Combat Logistics Battalion 26 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
He has never attended Cornell University.
He was also already serving on active duty in the Marine Corps when the alleged October 2024 incident at the center of the Cornell lawsuit occurred.
But another man named Matthew Ingalls is one of seven people named as defendants in a civil lawsuit filed by a former Cornell student.
The mix-up reached the Marine’s family on Sept. 26.
His mother, Victoria Ingalls, said a man came to her home in upstate New York and asked whether Matthew Ingalls was her son.
Because her son is serving in the military, she initially feared the visitor was bringing terrible news about him.
Instead, she was handed a 101-page lawsuit.
It was intended for the other Matthew Ingalls.
Reporting by The Free Press found that the Marine family’s address had been entered into the court docket in connection with service of the lawsuit.
A Camp Lejeune spokesperson confirmed to The Free Press that Sgt. Ingalls is not the Matthew Ingalls named as a defendant in the Cornell case.
Stars and Stripes separately confirmed through Marine Corps personnel information that Ingalls is currently serving with Combat Logistics Battalion 26 at Camp Lejeune.
The mistake did not end with the legal papers.
As the Cornell case attracted widespread attention online, the Ingalls family says its personal information began circulating on the internet.
Victoria Ingalls said phone numbers and the family’s home address were shared by people who apparently believed they had identified the man named in the Cornell lawsuit.
Threatening and abusive messages followed.
One message sent to Ingalls’ 26-year-old daughter told her to kill herself.
Another message was reportedly accompanied by an image of the Cornell defendant and a Google Earth view of the Marine family’s home, which the family interpreted as a threat.
“My family’s been terrorized, threatened, and harassed,” Victoria Ingalls told The Free Press.
She said the people contacting the family had apparently failed to verify whether they had identified the correct Matthew Ingalls before sending messages or circulating personal information.
“You’re creating more victims,” she said.
The underlying Cornell case involves a civil lawsuit filed Sept. 16 by a woman identified in court records as Jane Doe.
The lawsuit accuses seven men of sexually assaulting her at Cornell’s Chi Phi fraternity house in October 2024.
Those allegations remain part of ongoing civil litigation, and the Cornell student named Matthew Ingalls is a different person from the Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune.
The Marine has no connection to Cornell, according to the reporting and confirmation from Camp Lejeune.
The law firm representing Jane Doe acknowledged the service problem and told The Free Press it was working with the court and process server to correct it.
“Service upon the correct Matthew Ingalls is being arranged,” an attorney with the firm said.
The Tompkins County District Attorney’s Office recently reopened its criminal investigation into the underlying Cornell allegations after the civil lawsuit brought renewed attention to the case.
No criminal charge against the Cornell Matthew Ingalls had been announced as of the reports on the mistaken service.
For Sgt. Ingalls and his family, however, the consequences of the mistaken identity arrived before the error was corrected.
His mother said her son has some protection while living on Camp Lejeune, but she remains concerned about the safety of family members whose personal information circulated publicly.
The family is asking people to stop contacting them and to recognize that the Marine who received the lawsuit is not the man accused in the Cornell case.