The 3 men filed suit in New York.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Three members of a University of Virginia fraternity who were infamously profiled in a redacted Rolling Stone article that featured a detailed account of gang rape have filed a lawsuit against the magazine, its publisher, and the author of the story, Sabrina Rubin Erdely.
The three men, George Elias IV, Stephen Hadford, and Ross Fowler, filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in New York.
The lawsuit states that the three UVA alumni, who had been members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity before graduating in 2013, were identified by people who knew them because of details provided in the now-debunked piece.
The three 2013 graduates claim the article “created a simple and direct way to match the alleged attackers†from the alleged gang rape to them based on details provided in the story. For instance, Elias’ room at the fraternity house was “the mostly likely scene of the alleged crime†based on the details in the Rolling Stone article.
“Upon release of the article, family friends, acquaintances, co-workers and reporters easily matched [Elias] as one of the alleged attackers and, among other things, interrogated him, humiliated him, and scolded him,†the lawsuit said, adding that Hadford and Fowler “suffered similar attacks.â€
The men are suing on three counts, including defamation and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and are asking for at least $75,000 for each count.
News of the lawsuit broke as the New York Times revealed that Rolling Stone’s managing editor, Will Dana — who helped edit the original article– had resigned.
When asked if the departure was linked to the controversy over the discredited article, titled “A Rape on Campus,” Rolling Stone’s publisher, Jann S. Wenner, informed The Times via a spokeswoman that “many factors go into a decision like this.â€
In the weeks after publication, the article, which was based largely on the account of one student, identified only as “Jackie,” completely fell apart. Police in Charlottesville, Va., said that after exhausting all leads they had found “no substantive basis†to support the article’s depiction of the assault.
Rolling Stone subsequently commissioned a report from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism which found numerous flaws at every level of the magazine’s editing process.
Adding to the firestorm of controversy, an associate dean from the University of Virginia, Nicole Eramo, separately sued the magazine for more than $7.5 million earlier this year, saying that the story had cast her as the “chief villain” by claiming she tried to persuade Jackie not to report the alleged rape.