Cornell 7 Defendant Seeks to Be Dismissed From Jane Doe's Sexual Assault Case: Report

One of the accused Cornell 7, Diego Sarabia, is seeking to be dismissed from Jane Doe's sexual assault lawsuit ... arguing that the claims against him boil down to a "forced kiss."

Sarabia's attorneys deny the allegations against him, and argued that even if they were true, the claims are legally insufficient, filed past the deadline -- or both ... NBC News reported.

An attorney for Sarabia -- who is accused of forcibly kissing and snorting ketamine off Jane Doe's body -- claimed this is "essentially a lawsuit about a forced kiss."

His team also stated in the filing that Sarabia is not accused of providing Jane Doe with drugs ... or having sexual intercourse with her.

And as for the separate claims of assault, battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress ... those have a one-year statute of limitations, they argue.

Sarabia and his legal team previously made news after they tried -- and failed -- to stop the lawyers involved with the court case from speaking publicly about it.

Well, Judge Phaedra Perry-Bond wasn't having any of it ... and denied their request, saying that their argument to limit the free speech of others wasn't nearly persuasive enough.

As you know ... the civil lawsuit centers around Jane Doe's claims that she was gang-raped by 7 Cornell frat brothers of the Chi Phi fraternity.

After the Tompkins County D.A. declined to pursue charges ... New York Attorney General Letitia James took over as special prosecutor.

However, James has been forced to defend her overseeing any criminal investigation after claims of bias were made against her by one of the other defendants.

Co-defendant Gillio Lopes attempted to get her dismissed from the investigation because she posted about the alleged victim -- something she said she did out of empathy.