Nicole Eramo, an associate dean of students at the University of Virginia, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine over its UVA rape story.
According to a statement from her lawyer to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the lawsuit was filed in Charlottesville Circuit Court and seeks $7.85 million in damages. The lawsuit names Rolling Stone, its parent company Wenner Media and journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely.
In Erdely’s original report, Eramo appeared to ignore the claims of Jackie, the student who told Erdely that she was gang raped after a Phi Kappa Psi party.
Erdley defamed the dean “in order to present a preconceived storyline that Dean Eramo discouraged the reporting of a violent rape to law enforcement because she was more concerned with protecting the University's reputation that with assisting victims of sexual assault,” the statement read.
Erdely’s original story was published in November 2014. Weeks later, other media outlets began discrediting the story, forcing Rolling Stone to apologize. The magazine tried to save face by asking for an independent investigation lead by Columbia School of Journalism dean Steve Coll. In April, Coll’s report was published and found several missteps by Erdely and editors. Rolling Stone ended up retracting the story.
Phi Kappa Psi is reportedly considering taking legal action against the magazine as well.
In March, Charlottesville police announced that they found no evidence to support the Rolling Stone article.