T. Rees Shapiro / The Washington Post
A Phi Kappa Psi fraternity chapter announced Tuesday it plans to settle a lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine in a defamation case involving allegations — later debunked — that University of Virginia students participated in a gang rape.
A spokesman for the fraternity, Brian Ellis, said that the case filed in state court in Charlottesville is expected to be settled for $1.65 million.
“It has been nearly three years since we and the entire University of Virginia community were shocked by the now infamous article, and we are pleased to be able to close the book on that trying ordeal and its aftermath,” the fraternity chapter wrote in a statement. “The chapter looks forward to donating a significant portion of its settlement proceeds to organizations that provide sexual assault awareness education, prevention training and victim counseling services on college campuses.”
Rolling Stone declined to comment.
The lawsuit, filed in 2015, was the third defamation case brought against the magazine stemming from its November 2014 publication of “A Rape on Campus.”
The 9,000-word account detailed blistering allegations of sexual assault at U-Va., including what the magazine described as a brutal gang rape hazing ritual.
The article described the experiences of a U-Va. student named “Jackie,” who told of being assaulted by seven men while two others watched at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party during her freshman year in 2012. Amid a national resurgence of interest in campus sexual assault cases, the Rolling Stone story drew widespread attention almost instantly for its raw portrayal of fraternity culture run amok. An online viral sensation, the article, by journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely, attracted huge readership to the magazine’s website.
But Rolling Stone later retracted the article after an investigation by The Washington Post showed that the magazine’s reporting and fact-checking was fatally flawed.
Two reports by the Charlottesville police department and Columbia University journalism school confirmed The Post’s findings that the assault described in Rolling Stone never occurred.
After the article’s retraction, U-Va. administrator Nicole Eramo filed a lawsuit claiming that she was erroneously portrayed as callous and indifferent to Jackie’s rape allegations. Eramo sought $7.5 million.
In November, a jury ruled in Eramo’s favor and awarded her $3 million, but during appeal the case was settled confidentially. Three alumni members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity had filed a separate lawsuit in federal court against the magazine, but that case was dismissed by a judge in June 2016.
In accepting the $1.65 million settlement now, the U-Va. Phi Kappa Psi chapter is forgoing a jury trial and dropping its original request for $25 million.
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