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The fraternity is also engaged in legal action. AP/Press Association Images

Rolling Stone magazine defamed dean over bogus frat house gang rape story

The article entitled “A Rape on Campus” has since been retracted.

A US FEDERAL jury has found Rolling Stone magazine, its publisher and a reporter defamed a University of Virginia administrator in a discredited story about gang rape at a fraternity house.

The 10-member jury found journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely was responsible for libel, with actual malice. Jurors also said Rolling Stone and its publisher were responsible for defaming University of Virginia administrator Nicole Eramo.

Word of the jury decision came Friday afternoon in multiple news outlets.

Eramo claimed the 2014 article portrayed her as a villain who discouraged the woman identified only as “Jackie” from reporting the incident to police. A police investigation found no evidence to back up Jackie’s claims. Erano is seeking damages of $7.5 million.

Rolling Stone’s lawyers said there was no evidence that the reporter knew what she was writing about Eramo was false or had serious doubts about whether it was true.

Jurors heard closing arguments on Tuesday after listening to more than two weeks’ worth of evidence.

The story about Jackie’s rape set off a firestorm at the university and in schools nationwide. Eramo received hundreds of angry letters and emails calling her the “dean of rape,” among other things, and faced protesters outside her office.

The story crumbled after other news outlets began asking questions and police found no evidence to back it up. The article was officially retracted in April 2015.

Rolling Stone Lawsuit Rolling Stone contributing editor Sabrina Rubin Erdely. Steve Helber Steve Helber

Over the course of the more than two-week trial, the jury of eight women and two men watched 11 hours of video testimony, heard from a dozen live witnesses and examined nearly 300 exhibits.

At issue were three statements made about Eramo in the article and several comments Erdely made about the “university” and “administration” in media interviews before the article was retracted.

Among the statements in the article that Eramo claimed were defamatory was one in which she is quoted — through Jackie — as saying that the university doesn’t publish all of its statistics about sexual assault because “nobody wants to send their daughter to the rape school.” Eramo says that was fabricated by Jackie.

Fraternity Rolling Stone The Phi Kappa Psi house at the University of Virginia. AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The judge earlier this week dismissed Eramo’s claim that the story, when taken as a whole, implied that Eramo was a “false friend” to Jackie. Rolling Stone had called that a “critical element” of her case.

Because the judge determined that Eramo was a public figure, she had to prove that Rolling Stone made statements with “actual malice,” meaning it knew that what it was writing about her was false or entertained serious doubts as to whether it might be true.

Eramo’s attorneys argued that Erdely came into the story with a preconceived storyline about institutional indifference to sexual assault and intentionally disregarded statements and facts about Eramo that didn’t fit that narrative.

Rolling Stone Lawsuit University of Virginia administrator Nicole Eramo. Steve Helber Steve Helber

They claimed Erdely also ignored red flags about Jackie’s credibility, including the changing account of Jackie’s rape and her refusal to let Erdely talk to people who could corroborate her story.

Lawyers for Rolling Stone acknowledged that Erdely and her editors made serious reporting mistakes, but argued that there was no evidence they acted with actual malice.

The magazine’s attorneys said that Erdely and her editors had full faith in Jackie until they realised she was no longer credible in early December after the story was published.

Rolling Stone has agreed to pay all of Erdely’s legal costs and any penalties that may be levied against her.

Read: Rolling Stone heading to trial over debunked story of college rape >

Read: Fraternity wrongly accused of gang rape files $25 million lawsuit against Rolling Stone >

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12 Comments
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    Mute George Brown
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    Nov 4th 2016, 6:53 PM

    That Rolling Stone incident captured the zeitgeist of this generation pretty well: the media lacking in integrity and it fostering massive waves of self righteous, indignant and sanctimonious ideologues of identity politics.

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    Mute Awkward Seal
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    Nov 4th 2016, 7:33 PM

    They have their pitchforks at the ready and are constantly geared up for the next target. This video describes the psychology of these people perfectly. They have more in common with right-wing extremists than with your typical left of centre liberal. https://youtu.be/x_fBYROA7Hk

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    Mute Awkward Seal
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    Nov 4th 2016, 6:46 PM

    This happened because feminist voices are taking over mainstream media. They cannot be questioned as that would be sexist no matter how outlandish or exaggerated their claims are. Feminism ceased to be about equality of the genders around the time the genders became de facto equal in the west. Now it is a female supremacy movement. This is not an exaggeration. If you’ve paid attention over the last couple of years you’d have seen the insanity that their movement has come out with. But you’d also have seen the backlash against it. It is a real cultural battle and it’s something we must win to protect freedom of speech itself.

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    Mute Jason Culligan
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    Nov 4th 2016, 7:01 PM

    @Awkward Seal:

    Sure look at the Huffington Post as a fine example. Most of their journalistic staff these days are women with majors in Women’s Studies which results in predictable nonsense.

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    Mute Gordian Knot
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    Nov 4th 2016, 7:04 PM

    @Jason Culligan: Real journalism is sadly a dying profession.

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    Mute Jeffrey McMahon
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    Nov 4th 2016, 7:12 PM

    Sure these days they have even changed the definition from promotion of equality for both genders to promotion of equality for men. Look at last week’s article about men opening up but nobody listening, you have one person admit it isn’t about equality and another state it is about equality shortly after. What I think is interesting is that the defamation cases by the frat house and false accusation victims were thrown out but that this one went ahead. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad this one did, but I question why the other two were thrown out. Only difference I can see is the gender of the person taking the libel case. Judges rulings are also somewhat questionable, ruling that malicious intent had to be proven for the case to qualify as libel. That false libellous statements were made is already beyond doubt. Kinda hints at protection of the offender.

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    Mute Eddie Simon
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    Nov 4th 2016, 8:05 PM

    Wasn’t there nearly identical incident like this one out in UCD last year? The campus paper accused male students of mass sexual assault?

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    Mute Emeralds
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    Nov 4th 2016, 8:30 PM

    Not exactly, it was supposed to be a group of 200 Ag Science students on Yik Yak who rated pictures of girls. I don’t blame you for thinking it was a mass rape incident though, because that’s the level of reaction it provoked

    And then it turned out it didn’t exist. Were any apologies forthcoming? Lol! Of course not! Apparently, it “doesn’t matter if it’s true”. http://www.her.ie/life/opinion-it-actually-doesnt-really-matter-if-ucd200-happened-or-not/279240

    I only posted that link to prove the quote I cited. Don’t give it a click. Read this analysis instead
    http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/opinion-the-truth-doesn-t-seem-to-matter-very-much-in-ucd-revenge-porn-saga-1.2539997

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    Mute Eddie Simon
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    Nov 4th 2016, 8:34 PM

    Thanks emeralds I’d a brief recollection of the incident.

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    Mute Gordian Knot
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    Nov 4th 2016, 6:43 PM

    I hope Eramo wins every penny of that 7.5 million for having her life destroyed by a hack with an agenda.

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    Mute Eddie Simon
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    Nov 4th 2016, 6:36 PM

    Great news, here’s hoping this rag joins Gawker in the dustbin of history.

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    Mute Termaz Fx
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    Nov 4th 2016, 7:47 PM

    So much for the “rape culture” BS.

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