Back in November, Rolling Stone published an article profiling a student named Jackie at the University of Virginia (UVA) who claimed to have been gang raped at a frat party on campus her freshman year. Turns out, there was absolutely no evidence to support the story that threw Phi Kappa Psi under the bus and temporarily shut down Greek life at UVA.
Now, three UVA alumni who were brothers of Phi Kappa Psi have filed a lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine over the debunked article. They’ve filed a defamation lawsuit against the magazine, the article’s author Sabrina Rubin Erdely, and Jann Wenner, publisher of the magazine, The Washington Post reports.
The brothers, George Elias IV, Stephen Hadford, and Ross Fowler, filed suit in New York for more than $75,000 (plus punitive damages to be awarded at trial), alleging “mental anguish and severe emotional distress.” Specifically, the suit alleges the room Elias lived in at the frat was easily identifiable as the location where the rape described in the story took place.
“Upon release of the article, family friends, acquaintances, co-workers and reporters easily matched [Elisas] as one of the alleged attackers and, among other things, interrogated him, humiliated him, and scolded him,” the lawsuit states.
The claims made in the article “had a devastating effect on each of the plaintiffs’ reputations,” the lawsuit states.
Phi Kappa Psi fraternity said they would also sue the magazine (but no suit has been filed as of yet).
On Wednesday, Will Dana, who served as managing editor of Rolling Stone when the article was published, resigned from the magazine after 19 years.
3 University of Virginia Graduates Sue Rolling Stone Over Retracted Campus Rape Article
