Frat Brothers Sue 'Rolling Stone' for Publishing Rape Story

Three former UVA students are suing 'Rolling Stone' magazine for printing a story that accused them of gang rape.

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Complex Original

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Just over a year ago, on July 8, 2014, Rolling Stone published a story under the headline "A Rape on Campus," which detailed the brutal gang rape of a University of Virginia student referred to as "Jackie." In the months that followed, the story began to unravel, facing criticism from students and faculty members, and eventually revealing a whopping failure on Rolling Stone's part for not properly corroborating Jackie's account of the assault. The story was largely dismissed as bogus and has since been retracted—but now, three Phi Kappa Psi brothers (the fraternity implicated in the article) are suing the magazine, its publisher, and the reporter, Sabrina Erdely

The brothers were never named in the Rolling Stone story—but one of them was identified as the brother who lived in the room where Jackie's assault "most likely" happened, and was swiftly "interrogated," "humiliated," and "scolded," according to the suit.

CNN reports that this is actually the second lawsuit filed against the magazine for printing this story. A dean of the university claimed the article made her look like a "callous bureaucrat," and sued the magazine and Erdely for $7.5 million.

At the time of this writing, neither Rolling Stone nor Erdely have made any public comments about the boys' lawsuit. The three former students graduated from UVA in 2013. 

[via NYPost, CNN, Genius]

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