A third lawsuit has been filed against Rolling Stone Magazine for its reporting of an alleged gang-rape at the University of Virginia that turned out to be a hoax.
The fraternity accused of conducting the gang-rape as part of an initiation, Phi Kappa Psi, is suing Rolling Stone for $25 million.
“This defamation action is brought to seek redress for the wanton destruction caused to Phi Kappa Psi by Rolling Stone’s intentional, reckless and unethical behavior,” the complaint says.
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The Phi Psi house was vandalized after the Rolling Stone article was published.
The U.Va. chapter of the fraternity filed the lawsuit on Monday, more than three months after three individual fraternity members filed a joint lawsuit against the magazine. Those three members allege they were easily identifiable from the information provided by Rolling Stone, which led to harassment.
The three men are suing for two counts of defamation and one count of “negligent infliction of emotional distress.” They requested payment of $75,000 for each count, a total of $225,000.
Rolling Stone is also being sued by Dean Nicole Eramo, who was accused in the now-retracted article as being indifferent to student’s claims of sexual assault. Eramo was the only named villain in the debunked story, and is suing for $7.5 million.
The gang-rape accusation fell apart after an investigation by the Washington Post discovered the accuser was lying. She said she had attended a party at the Phi Psi house on a specific date, when no such party had occurred. She claimed she was raped as part of an initiation ceremony in the fall, but the fraternity does not pledge new members until the spring. Most importantly, the man she had claimed orchestrated the gang-rape didn’t exist.
In addition to the Post’s reporting, local police determined there was no evidence to support the accuser’s claims.
Following the unraveling of the story, Rolling Stone’s managing editor, Will Dana, resigned this past summer. The author of the discredited story, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, has not been fired.
