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UVA Rape Story Collapses; Duke Lacrosse Redux
Topic Started: Dec 5 2014, 01:45 PM (60,449 Views)
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http://dailycaller.com/2015/03/23/president-of-fraternity-falsely-accused-of-gang-rape-in-rolling-stone-article-shares-details-of-who-might-be-sued/

President Of Fraternity Falsely Accused Of Gang-Rape In Rolling Stone Article Shares Details Of Who Might Be Sued
10:40 PM 03/23/2015
Chuck Ross - Reporter
Chuck Ross is a reporter at The Daily Caller.

The national president of Phi Kappa Psi, the fraternity whose University of Virginia chapter members were falsely accused of gang-rape by a student named Jackie, has shared new details on who may be sued now that local police have all but determined that she lied about the attack.

Jackie’s claims about the Sept. 28, 2012, gang rape appeared in a Nov. 19 Rolling Stone article written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely.

“As a national organization, we ask that Rolling Stone remove the story from its website,” Phi Kappa Psi’s national president Scott Noble told The Daily Caller on Monday. “A simple apology is not acceptable due to the reckless reporting with an intent to harm innocent students trying to receive…an education.”

Noble’s comments followed a statement released earlier Monday by UVA chapter president Stephen Scipione. He said that the chapter is “exploring its legal options to address the extensive damage caused by Rolling Stone.”

Noble added to that, telling TheDC that while the local chapter and its attorneys will determine what moves to make next, they are “now pursuing serious legal action toward Rolling Stone, the author and editor, and even Jackie.”

Noble, Scipione and Phi Kappa Psi’s members were largely silent during the investigation into the allegations.

Both Scipione’s and Noble’s responses came after Charlottesville, Va. police chief Timothy Longo said in a press conference that investigators could find no evidence to support Jackie’s claims as told to Erdely.

Jackie told Erdely that she was gang raped by seven Phi Kappa Psi members on the September night. Though Longo said that the investigation is not closed — merely suspended — he pointed out that investigators found evidence suggesting that Jackie changed her story numerous times. (RELATED: Police Release Details Of UVA Rape Investigation; Claim Accuser Embellished Another Attack Story)

For example, she claimed that she was gang raped by the seven members during a large house party. Longo pointed to several pieces of evidence suggesting that no party occurred at the house that night. Longo also said that Jackie embellished details of a beer bottle attack she said she sustained on April 6, 2014. Jackie claimed that her roommate picked shards of glass out of her face after the attack. The roommate denied that happened.

Noble said that a statement from Phi Kappa Psi’s national office is forthcoming and that “we will continue to escalate our pressure on Rolling Stone and all involved going forward.”

“We needed the system to officially clear our name,” he said.

So far, Phi Kappa Psi has not received a direct apology from those who perpetuated the story. Immediately after the story was published UVA president Teresa Sullivan suspended the fraternity and all Greek-life activities. The Phi Kappa Psi house was also vandalized and some of its members went into hiding.

Neither Jackie nor Erdely have spoken publicly on the matter. Jackie refused to provide details of her alleged attack to investigators. Longo said that Erdely did provide some additional detail on top of her reporting.

Rolling Stone has brought on the Columbia School of Journalism to investigate its reporting but has not offered a full comment on the matter. The magazine added a lengthy editor’s note to its web version of the 9,000-word article but has not removed it from its website.

Though Sullivan reinstated Phi Kappa Psi earlier this year, she has so far not apologized to organization.

“Serious damages and harm were caused to the young men and their housing,” Noble told TheDC. “Their civil right to receive an education [was] violated and life and school was put on hold.”
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http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local/police-no-substantive-basis-for-claims-of-rape-in-rolling/article_60104a88-d1d2-11e4-bd46-d7270d01b4c0.html

Police: 'No substantive basis' for claims of rape in Rolling Stone controversy

By Dean Seal | Posted: Monday, March 23, 2015 11:03 pm

A four-month investigation found “no substantive basis” for claims of a gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house, Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy J. Longo announced Monday.

The chief launched the investigation at the request of UVa President Teresa A. Sullivan on Nov. 19, the same day Rolling Stone published an ultimately discredited tale of a woman named “Jackie” being raped by seven men in an upstairs room during a party at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house. After speaking with some 70 people, investigators turned up no evidence to support the graphic account at the center of a 9,000-word story by authored by contributing editor Sabrina Rubin Erdely. Jackie did not cooperate with police.

“Unfortunately, we’re not able to conclude to any substantive degree that an incident that is consistent with the facts contained in that article occurred at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, or any other fraternity house for that matter,” Longo said Monday. “That doesn’t mean that something terrible did not happen to Jackie on the evening of Sept. 28, 2012 — we are just not able to gather sufficient facts to conclude what that something may have been.”

The magazine backed off the story Dec. 5, issuing an apology and saying it had found discrepancies in Jackie’s account and that its trust in her had been “misplaced.” On the same day, the fraternity issued a release saying it had gathered facts that refuted several key elements in the story.

Longo said police had suspended but not closed the investigation

“It’s suspended until such time as we are able to gather more information, or such time until someone comes forward and provides us with more information,” the chief said.

Investigator D.J. Harris said the department’s last contact with Jackie was in December, when they were “distinctly and succinctly told that she would not talk to us, that she would not file a report, that she did not want it investigated and we were not to talk to her again.”

Asked whether Jackie, whose last name has not been publicly disclosed, would be charged with making a false report, Longo answered: “Absolutely not.”

He said investigators spent “hundreds of hours” tracking down leads and potential witnesses.

After being referred to Associate Dean of Students Nicole Eramo because of poor grades, Jackie told the dean May 20, 2013, that she’d been sexually assaulted at an unknown fraternity on Madison Lane, police said Monday. Almost a year later, on April 21, Jackie told Eramo that she’d been hit in the face by a glass bottle two weeks earlier near Elliewood Avenue on the Corner. In the same meeting, Jackie told the dean that she’d been sexually assaulted at Phi Kappa Psi, but she wanted her report to remain anonymous.

A city police officer and a university officer met with Jackie and Eramo the following day, police said. She told police she’d been verbally abused by four males on the Corner, one calling out her name. When she turned, she said, she was hit by a glass bottle. She said she called her mother before returning home, where her roommate helped her remove the glass embedded in her skin.

That story raised questions of its own. Police later interviewed her roommate, who denied removing glass from Jackie’s face, and a review of records found no calls made from Jackie’s phone during the period she described. Investigators reviewed a photo taken of Jackie during the week that she said she’d been assaulted and found she did appear to have an injury on her face but it was not consistent with being struck by a blunt object.

During the April 22, 2014, meeting with city and university police, Jackie also relayed the claim of being sexually assaulted at the Phi Psi house. She said she reported it to the dean, but not to police because she feared retaliation from the fraternity. A detective spoke with Jackie again May 1, but she said she wanted no investigations of either of her claims.

Friends of Jackie as well as officials close to the case have said Jackie’s earlier allegations differed from those that appeared in Rolling Stone, and Sullivan has said the story contained “many details” of which the school was unaware.

A day after the story broke online and Sullivan requested the investigation, a detective again spoke with Jackie, who agreed to a meeting after the Thanksgiving break. She went to police headquarters Dec. 2, declining through her lawyer to provide a statement or answer questions. Rolling Stone retreated from its story several days later.

Police interviewed nine Phi Psi fraternity members who had been living at the house Sept. 28, 2012, the date Jackie said the rape took place. All nine said they did not know Jackie and heard nothing of a sexual assault at the time they lived there. Investigators found no evidence of a party at the house that night. Investigators found no one working at the university pool matching the description of Jackie’s alleged attacker – she claimed they both worked at UVa’s Aquatic and Fitness Center. The fraternity also denied that claim in December.

Two men who were friends of Jackie’s at the time she described the attack taking place told police in interviews they knew Jackie was going out on that night with a person known as Haven Monahan. Both men said they had never met Monahan, but had exchanged text messages with a person believed to be him. Investigators’ attempts to track down Monahan or a man matching the description in the Rolling Stone story — in which the attacker is dubbed “Drew” — have been unsuccessful, police said.

Both friends contradicted Jackie’s account of the events of Sept. 28, 2012, though what Jackie described to them at the time matched what she told Eramo.

Investigators also reviewed a photograph time-stamped 11:33 p.m. Sept. 28, 2012, and said it did not appear that a party was taking place at the fraternity at that time, and a review of fraternity bank records found no records on or around that date that indicated spending for a party.

After news spread that the investigation would be suspended, Sullivan issued a statement expressing her appreciation for Longo’s work and saying that the findings confirmed what federal privacy law prohibited the university from publicly sharing last fall: “that the university provided support and care to a student in need, including assistance in reporting potential criminal conduct to law enforcement.”
UVa president's statement on police investigation following Rolling Stone article

University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan's statement on the Charlottesville Police Department investigation of allegations described in a November 2014 Rolling Stone article:

State Attorney General Mark Herring said the news would not slow efforts to stamp out sexual violence on campus.

“We know that sexual violence is a real problem on college campuses and we have not wavered in our commitment to addressing it,” Herring said. “This issue will not, and should not, be pushed back into the shadows.”

Phi Kappa Psi said in a statement that the fraternity is “exploring its legal options to address the extensive damage caused by Rolling Stone.”

“These false accusations have been extremely damaging to our entire organization, but we can only begin to imagine the setback this must have dealt to survivors of sexual assault,” said UVa chapter President Stephen Scipione. “We hope that Rolling Stone’s actions do not discourage any survivors from coming forward to seek the justice they deserve.”

Rolling Stone is expected in a couple weeks to release the results of a Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism review of its editorial process and Erdely’s story. The magazine’s publisher requested the review after the story fell apart.

At the time of the story’s release, UVa was among 55 schools being investigated by the federal Department of Education over its handling of sexual assault.

Jackie’s attorney, Palma Pustilnik, declined to comment.

Longo said police continue to be interested in hearing from anyone who might know more about what might have happened to Jackie.

“I think it’s a disservice to Jackie, I think it’s a disservice to the university, to simply close this without at least allowing the opportunity so that if additional information comes forward, we’re able to further investigate,” Longo said. “There’s no statute of limitations on this particular type of crime.”
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http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2015/03/police-find-no-evidence-in-rolling-stone-investigation-suspend-inquiry

Police find no evidence in Rolling Stone investigation, suspend inquiry
Longo says police interviewed 70 individuals, Jackie offered no statement
by Andrew Elliott and Ella Shoup | Mar 23 2015 | 13 hours ago


Following an investigation spanning several months and hundreds of police hours, Charlottesville police are suspending the investigation into the alleged sexual assault detailed in a November Rolling Stone article, finding no evidence to corroborate any of the article’s central claims pertaining to the assault.

Police launched the investigation in November at the request of University President Teresa Sullivan after the magazine published an article detailing a graphic sexual assault of a then-first year student, identified as “Jackie,” in Sept. 2012 at a fraternity house. The fraternity at the center of the initial fervor was cleared of any involvement in the incident back in January.

“We are not able to conclude to any substantive degree that an incident that is specific to the facts contained in that article occurred at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house or any other fraternity house for that matter,” Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo said at a Monday press conference. “I want to be clear about something — that does not mean that something terrible did not happen on Sept. 28, 2012. We are just not able to gather sufficient facts as to what that something may have been.”

Longo said the investigation has been suspended, but not formally closed.

During the investigation, police discovered that the report detailed in the Rolling Stone article differed significantly from the report Jackie made to Asst. Dean of Students Nicole Eramo in May 2013 about the assault — at which time she did not identify a fraternity or a house. It was also different from the account she told two of her friends on the night of the alleged assault.

Jackie told Eramo about the alleged assault during a meeting to discuss her academic performance, Longo said.

A summary of the police investigation provided to media Monday said Eramo “provided 'Jackie' with the options available per U.Va. protocol in place at the time."

Police were first made aware of the incident in April 2014, when Jackie spoke with police regarding a second incident in which Jackie said four men pursued her and threw a glass bottle at her as she walked down Elliewood Avenue on the Corner. She declined to pursue criminal charges and asked police not to pursue the alleged Sept. 2012 assault.

In Brief: A timeline of The Rolling Stone controversy
Rolling StoneUVa FraternitiesPhi Kappa PsiCharlottesville PoliceDec 2014Jan 2015FebMarColumbia Review (Ongoing)President Sullivan Suspends FraternitiesPhi Psi Suspends FOA with UVaPolice Investigation

Throughout the investigation into the claims in Rolling Stone, police spoke with 70 individuals, including several members of Phi Psi fraternity. Police also interviewed several individuals who worked at the Aquatic and Fitness Center — where Jackie said she met one of her alleged attackers, identified as “Drew” in the article. Police found nobody matching Drew’s description, but did interview a second individual “whose name surfaced during the course of the investigation” who worked at the AFC and was in a different fraternity. Police interviewed him along with several members of his fraternity and found no evidence supporting the Rolling Stone allegations.

Longo said most individuals were fully cooperative with the investigation, including the article’s author Sabrina Erdely, and he thanked University President Teresa Sullivan and the University staff for providing interviews and records which aided in the investigation.

Police did attempt to interview Jackie during the investigation, but she declined to offer a statement. The last contact they had with her was in early December, when she visited police with the accompaniment of Assoc. Dean of Students Laurie Casteen and a legal representative from the Legal Aid and Justice Center.

"Since that time, despite numerous attempts to gain her cooperation, 'Jackie' has provided no information whatsoever to investigators," according to the investigation summary. "In an effort to access certain records pertaining to 'Jackie' that would aid in our investigation, efforts were made through her legal counsel to obtain her written consent. Those efforts, too, were met with negative results."

Police found no evidence that Phi Psi hosted a party on the night of Sept. 28, 2012 — also noting the organization’s “sister sorority,” Delta Gamma, was hosting a formal that night, making it unlikely the fraternity would have hosted a party. They also found a picture taken that night which showed the fraternity house nearly empty.

Eyewitnesses told police they saw no physical injuries on Jackie on the night of the alleged assault.

Longo said the investigation also led to questions about the accuracy of Jackie’s alleged assault on the Corner in April 2014, noting that she said her roommate, a nursing student, had to pick glass off of her face that night. The roommate told investigators this did not occur, but noted there was an abrasion on her face — corroborated by a photograph taken around the time of the incident. Jackie also said she called her mother from the Elliewood parking lot, which phone records did not show.

Police investigators also could not substantiate claims of additional sexual assaults referenced in Jackie’s conversations with Eramo — in 2010 and 2014, both occurring at the Phi Psi fraternity house. Jackie did not identify the victims of these alleged assaults.

“We have no evidence of that — nobody has come forward making such allegations, no witnesses, no victims,” Longo said. “But we’re asking if anybody has information related to a sexual assault that occurred in 2010 at that fraternity house, or 2014 at that fraternity house, or any other fraternity house, that they please cooperate with police to bring that to our attention.”

Longo said he would not pursue charges of making false allegations of sexual assault without the agreement of the commonwealth attorney.

In a statement following the announcement of the investigation’s results, Sullivan thanked Longo and the Charlottesville police for their “thorough investigation” into the Rolling Stone allegations.

“The investigation confirms what federal privacy law prohibited the University from sharing last fall: that the University provided support and care to a student in need, including assistance in reporting potential criminal conduct to law enforcement,” Sullivan said. “Chief Longo’s report underscores what I have known since well before the publication of the Rolling Stone article: that we at the University are committed to ensuring the health and safety of all of our students.”

Longo emphasized the importance of survivors being aware of the resources available to them when reporting their attacks, and noted the importance of timely reporting in the criminal justice process.

“Having police involvement in the very early stages of these cases is extremely, extremely important,” Longo said. “Every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every month of every year, we lose evidence.”

Evidence is important to get to the truth so “justice can prevail,” Longo said.

The police chief said Charlottesville police “will continue to stand by students” after seven tumultuous months at the University.
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http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2015/03/letter-sexual-assault-must-end

LETTER: Sexual assault must end
by One in Four | Mar 24 2015 | 5 hours ago

To the University of Virginia,

Over the last year our community has faced tragedy, trial and emotional turmoil. Through these tribulations One in Four has continued to stand with all students, especially those affected by sexual violence. Today’s suspension of the investigation into a 2012 incident at the Phi Kappa Psi house does not represent the end of our fight against sexual violence on college campuses, nor does it indicate a wavering commitment by members of this community to support survivors.

As awareness continues to remain at an all-time high, we will continue to recommit ourselves to making this University a safer community. We know from supporting our loved ones and listening to our peers that sexual assault harms far too many members of our community.

Therefore, our work to create cultural and institutional change has only just begun, and our mission to educate and empower will never slow or cease. Sexual assault must end. We applaud Police Chief Tim Longo and his staff for working carefully and deliberately. We too will proceed deliberately as advocates on this issue, aiming to make U.Va. a safe space for survivors to come forward without fear. We are dedicated to making the University of Virginia a leader in the ongoing fight against rape and sexual assault.

Please join us as we move forward.

One in Four

University of Virginia
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http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2015/03/how-to-improve-title-ix-part-i

How to improve Title IX: Part I
Sexual misconduct adjudication would improve with some standardized practices
by Managing Board | Mar 24 2015 | 4 hours ago

Yesterday, Charlottesville police held a press conference releasing the findings of their now-suspended investigation into the alleged gang rape of University student Jackie, whose story was depicted in a now-discredited article in Rolling Stone.

The findings of the investigation — that a gang rape did not occur at the fraternity in question on the night alleged — are simply one of many developments that have forced us as a school to reevaluate how we discuss and respond to sexual assault. With this in mind, we have taken a closer look at the regulations that guide many of these discussions — namely, Title IX. While our suggestions are by no means exhaustive, we have noted several areas that would benefit from reform.

A key issue with Title IX requirements is that they leave many decisions up to schools that should, in fact, be standardized. The need for standardization does not apply to all regulations within Title IX — but it definitely applies to regulations regarding due process. This need seems especially important given the existence of so many misunderstandings regarding sexual assault: according to FiveThirtyEight, despite acknowledging the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses nationwide, only 6 percent of U.S. college presidents believe sexual assault is a problem on their own campuses.

As these misunderstandings can contribute to haphazard ways of investigating and adjudicating sexual misconduct, we see standardization as a useful combatant to administrations’ misunderstandings about or aversion to properly handling such cases. In particular, we have two suggestions for a more standardized application of Title IX. According to a document produced by the U.S. Department of Education describing the requirements schools have under Title IX, “neither Title IX nor the [Dear Colleague Letter from the DOE] specifies who should conduct the investigation.” This is, quite obviously, problematic. Specifying who should conduct or oversee investigations would minimize the possibility for conflicts of interest — for, though Title IX suggests there should be no conflicts of interest, what constitutes a conflict of interest is inherently subjective. Specifying who should oversee investigations would also streamline the process, and make it easier to evaluate individual schools’ investigative practices.

The second suggestion is to specify in Title IX whether schools should allow complainants or defendants the representation of lawyers or advisers during proceedings. Currently, Title IX does not specify whether schools should allow them at any stage of the proceedings: according to the same document referenced above, it only mandates that “if the school permits one party” to have a lawyer or adviser, “it must do so equally for both parties.” We cannot speak to whether proceedings should or should not include legal advising — but the standardization of this rule across colleges would certainly be beneficial. Having different systems across colleges means the environment in which sexual misconduct is adjudicated is different in different places, which should not be the case.

There is much to be said for allowing schools to adjudicate these cases based on their own campus environments. Certainly, there is a difference between the culture at our University and the culture of a small liberal arts school — and these differences and our different administrative styles could and perhaps should have an impact on the way in which sexual misconduct is handled. But at least in the two areas described above, standardization is necessary in order to properly adjudicate cases, and in order to provide due process to both the complainant and the defendant.
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Rape is a crime that should be handled by courts of law where the rights of the accused are respected - not by the quasi-student administrative kangaroo courts that are populated by professors and students with agendas that currently exist on too many college campuses and in which the accused have no rights - not even to an attorney.
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Joan Foster

Look at the appalling advantage that a Fantasist like "Jackie" accrues from not having to file a police report! She is free to slander...smear...and, often, destroy the educational opportunities of any young man she targets! All without any fear of reprecussion to herself, we don't even know this Liars NAME! Why not?

And why is he allowed to violate the UVA Honor code? It's a farce as long as it protects this lying piece of trash.
Edited by Joan Foster, Mar 24 2015, 07:33 AM.
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http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2015/03/24/gillibrand-avoid-victim-blaming-in-uva-rape-story/

Gillibrand: Avoid “victim blaming” in UVA rape story
24 March 2015, 12:25 pm by Joseph Spector

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who is pushing for stronger laws against rapes on college campuses, today warned against people criticizing the woman at the center of a University of Virginia sexual assault case.

Yesterday, police in Charlottesville said they were unable to verify that the alleged sexual assault occurred after a controversial Rolling Stone magazine article detailed the female student’s alleged ordeal in 2012 at a fraternity house.

Gillibrand AP

The story has been full of discrepancies, as reports in the Washington Post and elsewhere found, and the magazine has since published an apology.

But Gillibrand said the ire over the case shouldn’t shift blame onto victims, who already have a hard time coming forward to authorities.

“Victim blaming or shining the spotlight on her for coming forward is not the right approach,” Gillibrand said on “The Capitol Pressroom,” a public radio show in Albany. “In fact, what we have to focus on is how do we keep these campuses safe? How do we have better trained personnel on campuses so they can tell a survivor what her options are and so they can have all the facts?”

Gillibrand said it would be wrong for some to call on the female student in the UVA scandal to face criminal charges.

“I think it’s inappropriate,” she said. “One of the challenges with survivors of sexual trauma and rape is that they often don’t want to actually participate with law enforcement because they don’t think justice is possible. They don’t think they will be believed; they think they’ll be blamed.”

Gillibrand said her Campus Accountability & Safety Act would provide better rights for victims and those accused of the crimes. She applauded Gov. Andrew Cuomo for a similar initiative, an “Enough is Enough” campaign.

“It’s not about any one case or any one investigation. It’s about a very serious problem that is taking place across campuses across the country,” she said.
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http://hotair.com/archives/2015/03/24/former-federal-prosecutor-rolling-stone-uva-fiasco-shows-danger-of-wh-title-ix-pressure/

Former federal prosecutor: Rolling Stone-UVa fiasco shows danger of WH Title IX pressure
posted at 12:41 pm on March 24, 2015 by Ed Morrissey

Yesterday, the Charlottesville Police Department closed its investigation into the reports of a gang rape at the University of Virginia reported by Rolling Stone last year, as well as allegations of a “rape culture” levied by Sabrina Rubin Erdely in the long-discredited article. They found no evidence that the fraternity at the center of the accusation even had any event on the night in question, and declared that no evidence emerged that supported the broader accusations against UVa. Police chief Timothy Longo also told the media that “Jackie,” the accuser at the heart of Erdely’s reporting, refused to cooperate with the investigation, and that the witnesses they found did not support any part of the story she and Erdely told.

What lessons arise from this utter collapse of a narrative created by Erdely and Rolling Stone that could have come straight out of 17th-century Salem, or the McMartin Preschool trial? Erik Wemple shows no mercy in his journalistic post-mortem:

What is left of the Rolling Stone piece? Very little. There’s some reporting on the university’s culture, which shouldn’t be taken seriously in light of the fraud exposed by the police; there’s some reporting on the university leadership’s approach to the issue, which shouldn’t be taken seriously in light of the fraud exposed by the police; there’s some reporting on an old rape case, which pretty much holds up, but, again….

Though Longo is not paid as a media critic, his statements make clear that Rolling Stone propagated a biased work built on a mix of naivete and advocacy. As we’ve written before, Rolling Stone personnel should lose employment over this disaster.

Instapundit posted a letter from a journalist who wishes to remain anonymous, who worries about the turn toward advocacy and away from skepticism in first-person reporting. Don’t expect media outlets to learn a lesson from this, the reporter warns:

You might be interesting in this Tip Sheet from Columbia’s Dart Center:

Note how from the very first paragraph the tip sheet assumes that anyone making a complaint is a “survivor,” not an “alleged victim” or other neutral language.

Nowhere do these guidelines say “Be sure to give the alleged perpetrator or his/her representatives a chance to respond to the allegations.”

But they do say:

“Listening is important. Make sure to allow ample time for the source to tell you their story. Don’t rush them. Don’t press for details if they are not willing. Allow them to tell you what they feel comfortable talking about.”

Columbia’s J-school is finishing an outside investigation of the Erdely article and its publication at the invitation of Rolling Stone’s editors. If this is the standard to which they hold the magazine, Rolling Stone will have no problem accepting the endorsement. The journalist expects J-school dean Steve Coll to rethink the standard. We’ll see. At first blush, it’s hard to see where Coll can fault Erdely or Rolling Stone.

The problem goes deeper than the reporting, though. Gregory Wallance, a former federal prosecutor writing for USA Today, gets close to the mark:

But the U.Va. incident says less about a journalistic rush to judgment than it does about a misguided federal policy to deter campus sexual assaults that is sowing chaos on campuses.

Universities and colleges, as witnessed by U.Va., have been in an impossible damned if you do, damned if you don’t position, ever since the U.S. Department of Education’sannouncement on April 4, 2011 that, under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, any college or university receiving federal aid will be held accountable for failing to deter and punish campus sexual assaults. …

One problem is that the Title IX policy rests on the flawed premise that institutions of higher learning are good at law enforcement. But no one would expect a university to investigate and prosecute a campus murder, yet sexual assault cases, especially rape, are just as challenging, if not more so, as illustrated by the Charlottesville Police Department’s experience. The predictable inability of academic institutions to act as a combined police force, prosecutor’s office and court has led to extraordinary frustration and fury by students. Dozens of lawsuits are pending against schools by students alleging that their claims of sexual violence were mishandled and by students alleging that the accusations against them were unfairly adjudicated. Indeed, U.Va. waspilloried across the country for not having done more to stop a fraternity rape that may never have occurred.

Universities and colleges, including the most elite institutions, are in over their heads, as witness their unworkable sex policies.

It’s actually much more basic than Wallance suggests. The pressure put on universities and colleges by the Obama administration to use a low evidentiary standard and confusing definitions of criminality has had the effect of standing basic American jurisprudence on its head. Instead of allowing a presumption of innocence and the accused to face and question his accusers, the process assumes guilt and blocks even the most elementary of defense options. As I write in my column for The Week, the biggest contribution made by the Charlottesville PD is their admission that they can’t prove a negative:

And yet, as Longo noted, their investigation couldn’t definitively prove that nothing traumatic had happened to Jackie on that night in September 2012. They could demonstrate that Jackie had given false information in her story, but that was all.

That’s the real lesson from the Charlottesville investigation. It’s impossible to prove a negative — and that’s why we have the protections afforded us through due process when it comes to allegations of criminality.

Activists, abetted by the Obama administration’s pressure on schools to increase disciplinary actions for sexual harassment and assault, have pushed schools into using incredibly low standards of evidence in administrative hearings, while denying the accused opportunities to confront accusers, examine witnesses and evidence, or even put on an effective defense. In too many cases, those accused on college campuses find themselves in the impossible position of proving negatives. Instead of having normal due process, they find themselves in kangaroo courts, with their lives ruined on the basis of mere allegation.

Yes, Erdely’s Rolling Stone article is a “crock,” as Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple puts it. But so are attempts to have schools conduct witch hunts against people about whom nothing has been proven. We need to end presumptions of guilt and denial of due process now, and leave criminal investigations in the hands of professionals — like the Charlottesville Police Department — and not activists in pursuit of their own political goals.

It’s time to put an end to the latest moral panic, and put the Department of Education on a tight leash when it comes to Title IX.
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http://www.vdare.com/posts/nyt-readers-unclear-on-concepts-of-catfishing-and-haven-monahan

NYT Readers Unclear on Concepts of Catfishing and Haven Monahan
By Steve Sailer on March 24, 2015, 10:39 am

Back in December, the day T. Rees Shapiro in the Washington Post broke a long, complicated, confusing but important story about the U. of Virginia fraternity gang rape allegations that allowed a careful reader to deduce that Jackie had catfished her purported gang rape organizer into electronic existence, a friend called from upstate New York to warn that the New York Times was going to try to make this story as vague and boring as possible so that most people wouldn’t be able to remember what happened. People would just remember that mistakes were made, proper journalistic procedures were not followed as carefully as they should be, and it was all a big he said, she said, but who knows maybe something happened to her, and anyway waddaya waddaya?

The Times has succeeded in keeping its columns a Safe Space for those who don’t want their views on the UVA story challenged too directly.

And you can see this is exactly pretty much what happened by looking at the reader comments to today’s NYT article on the police report. Here’s a fairly representative one:

So what does all of this mean? That RS misinterpreted or failed to validate her story? That Jackie lied? Did she? If so, why nobody says so? If not, where is the evidence? So unfortunate that this ‘story’ will end up having the most negative impact on those least deserving, true victims. Sad . . .

A commenter who actually knows the score replied:

Petrov Too close for comfort 1 hour ago Research “Haven Monahan” and ‘catfishing’ to begin your education.

Exactly. By suppressing all reporting on Jackie’s catfishing, and never mentioning the dread name “Haven Monahan” until today, the NYT has succeeded in keeping the story tedious and vague, when it’s actually clear-cut and hilarious.

The crucial fact is that Jackie engaged in massive fabrication, and before anything else happened. She didn’t start making up stuff just when Sabrina Rubin Erdely arrived on campus, or when she first went to poor Dean Nicole Eramo, or when she told her friend Ryan that she had been raped.

No, days before the purported rape, Jackie was occupied in ginning up an elaborate scam involving electronic sock puppets to get Ryan to believe that a dream date named Haven Monahan was pursuing her. Why? To make Ryan jealous so he’d fall in love with her.

In Aristotle-Aquinas terms, Jackie was the Prime Mover of the whole story.
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Assistant to The Devil Himself
I think that her invention of Haven is largely being overlooked, and it's crucial to the story.
Edited by LTC8K6, Mar 24 2015, 01:44 PM.
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Yes. Jackie has issues....perhaps the event that Longo was referring to was the realization by Jackie (devastating) that she the young man that she wanted to ask her out was NEVER going to and that her only hope was to play on his sympathy by going big with a made-up event that would garner her sympathy and his undivided attention. What she wanted was his attention and this she got- not the kind that in her heart of hearts she desired but hey, something was better than nothing.
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http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/editorials/our-view-what-police-didn-t-say-in-the-uva/article_f272fe3a-3ad0-51af-ab55-46a340cc95d0.html

Our view: What police didn't say in the UVa rape report

Posted: Wednesday, March 25, 2015 2:15 am

Police have been unable to confirm the horrific account of a gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity that was the centerpiece of the now-infamous Rolling Stone magazine article last fall that blasted UVa for covering up allegations of sexual assault.

The short version is that “Jackie,” the woman who said she was raped by seven men at a party, did not cooperate with police, and that in and of itself makes it nearly impossible to pursue a rape investigation. Key word: Nearly.

The longer version, though, merits some discussion.

First, the police investigation didn’t stop when “Jackie” refused to talk, and didn’t stop when fraternity members said they knew nothing about the alleged rape.

Police dug into Phi Kappa Psi’s bank records and found no expenditures “that would reflect purchases for a party or large gathering” on the date in question in September 2012. They found a photograph time-stamped from that night that showed the frat house mostly empty.

They even sent a court order to Google to track down the phone number carried over Google Voice that supposedly belonged to “Jackie’s” “date” that night.

They looked at work records and financial records of students who might have matched those who figured into the account “Jackie” gave the magazine.

This kind of investigation may be routine police work, but certainly appears thorough and impressive.

The bottom line: There’s no evidence the assailant “Jackie” named to friends actually exists, no evidence a party was held at the fraternity that night and, of course, no evidence the alleged gang rape happened.

Furthermore, “Jackie’s” veracity was called into a question on an unrelated matter. In April 2014, “Jackie” told university officials she had been attacked on a Charlottesville street, struck in the face with a glass bottle and that her roommate picked out the shards. However, that roommate told police she did no such thing. “Jackie” also said she called her mother that night. Police say phone records show no such call.

There’s one sure conclusion to be drawn from this: Rolling Stone got snookered by a story that seemed too good to be true for its purposes. If the pop culture magazine had bothered to do some of the serious reporting that The Washington Post, in particular, did, this whole ugly situation could have been avoided.

Instead, the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity feels it’s been defamed, as does, to some extent, all of the University of Virginia. The real victims here, though, are all the future sexual assault victims who will have to carry the burden of having to prove they’re not another “Jackie” making things up just to get attention.

There are also some public policy questions here, many of which have been raised before, but which remain unresolved. Specifically, what can and should colleges do when they hear about an alleged rape on their campus?

You’d think that might be simple: Call the police. It’s not. For one thing, there are federal privacy laws governing student confidentiality, which tell college administrators they can’t go to police without the victim’s consent. Some rape victims don’t want to go to police, of course; an understandable but unfortunate decision that simply lets rapists go free.

Then there’s the suspicion that some colleges don’t want to encourage victims to go to police, on the grounds that it would make the college look bad, which was really the main and still uncontested point of the Rolling Stone article. Unfortunately, that got lost in all the commotion over whether “Jackie’s” story was true or not.

So we come to this passage in the police report: “Federal laws governing privacy and protection of certain records in the possession of academic institutions obstructed our ability to access records that may have been relevant to our investigation.”

The idea that federal laws — however well-intentioned — stand in the way of investigating a report of a violent crime is one that deserves a national debate.

The Virginia General Assembly grappled with this during its most recent session, and sometimes found itself cross-wise with both federal law and those who argued that mandating colleges to report rapes to police would only discourage victims from reporting them to college administrators in the first place. That, of course, raises the question of what college administrators are supposed to do if they can’t go to police; that’s why colleges have developed their own in-house judicial proceedings, which sometimes bear little resemblance to the standards of an actual court.

The bills the legislature finally passed are something of a convoluted mess trying to thread the needle between federal confidentiality laws and the basic concept that a crime is a crime is a crime no matter where it happens.

Even if the governor signs those bills into law (as he should), the reality remains: Rape somebody downtown and you’ll go to prison. Rape somebody on campus and, well, maybe not, because college administrators might still find ways to discourage victims from reporting assaults, perhaps with the idea of protecting victims from further trauma, or perhaps with the idea of protecting their employers’ reputations. Much will depend on how the campus committees chaired by the Title IX coordinator interpret their new mandate to assess the risk to others if they don’t report alleged rapes to the local police.

All we know for sure is this: In May 2013, “Jackie” told the associate dean of students she’d been assaulted “at an unknown fraternity on Madison Lane” the previous fall. The dean advised “Jackie” of her options, but it’s unclear if the dean made any inquiries on her own. Did the dean simply not believe her then? Or did the dean just look the other way and not bother to ask questions? The report doesn’t say.

But if it’s not the former, wouldn’t a college administrator have an obligation to look into a report of an alleged rape at a fraternity? Was it an “unknown fraternity” because “Jackie” didn’t know or didn’t say? In any case, there are only five on that street. Are federal privacy laws so strict that the university, literally, couldn’t do anything? Or was Rolling Stone grievously wrong in its main example but essentially right in its main point about colleges trying to hush up reports of rape?

On that point, we still don’t know.
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http://www.newsplex.com/home/headlines/Legal-Analyst-Weighs-in-on-UVa-Frats-Legal-Options-297457371.html

Legal Analyst Weighs in on UVa Frat's Legal Options
Posted: Tue 7:29 PM, Mar 24, 2015
By: Colleen Quigley - Email

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (NEWSPLEX) -- The UVa fraternity at the center of a now discredited Rolling Stone article detailing an alleged gang rape is now exploring legal options, but receiving monetary compensation could be difficult.

In a statement Phi Kappa Psi said "Rolling Stone recklessly and prejudicially" thrust the brothers into a national debate about sexual assault on college campuses, after publishing the article depicting a graphic gang rape at the frat house.

CBS19's legal analyst Scott Goodman says proving defamation is more difficult for an organization, than a individual, but the brothers of Phi Kappa Psi can prove their reputation was damaged. After the article was published in November, several protests were held outside the fraternity, and the house was vandalized.

"There's no doubt about the fact that the particular fraternity was damaged by this reporting and by this story. It's been shown there was no rape in that house as the magazine reported, and so the magazine has to answer to that," said Goodman.

Goodman says in order for Rolling Stone to be held liable Phi Kappa Psi would have to prove that magazine defamed the fraternity by publishing untrue information and did not double checking it's sources. He expects if the fraternity decides to sue, they would go after Rolling Stone which has resources to pay for monetary damages, rather than alleged victim Jackie.

"If they are sued by the fraternity, or by individual members they are going to have to show that they did properly take care to put in print reporting that was verifiable, and that they were not negligent in any way which greatly harmed the fraternity. There's no doubt about that. Harm was done," said Goodman. "In a case like this an organization like a fraternity would want to sue the deepest pockets."

After it's publication in November, the magazine back away from the article, and on Monday police said there is no evidence to prove the rape, as detailed in the article, happened.
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http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2015/0324/Should-UVA-frat-sue-Rolling-Stone-for-debunked-rape-story-video


Phi Kappa Psi may have a case against Rolling Stone for their now-debunked report of a gang rape at the University of Virginia fraternity house. But it may not want to invite the kind of public scrutiny that comes with such cases.

By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer March 24, 2015


Phi Kappa Psi, the University of Virginia fraternity depicted in a 2014 Rolling Stone story as the center of a brutal college “rape culture,” says it may seek damages from the legendary music magazine after Charlottesville, Va., police said Monday that they found no evidence that corroborates the article’s main contention.

The piece, by contributing editor Sabrina Rubin Erdely, documented a bitter search for justice by a UVA student named “Jackie,” who was allegedly gang-raped by seven fraternity house brothers on Sept. 28, 2012. Rolling Stone was forced to apologize for its reporting after failing to interview any of the alleged attackers, and after other reporters found enough inconsistencies in the story to conclude the piece was largely, as The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple writes, “a crock.”

Ms. Erdely’s original story made a splash nationally, especially as it seemed to confirm the importance of the Obama administration’s effort to get colleges, including UVA, to take sexual assault allegations more seriously.

But the subsequent debunking of Jackie's claims may have equally significant impacts, critics say, by potentially undermining the credence of rape victims more broadly, and, especially if a libel suit is filed, forcing university communities and the reporters that cover them to more deeply consider the potential reputational damage of allowing activism to get out ahead of the facts.

To be sure, the inability of police to find any evidence or testimony to back up the story only adds to the fraternity’s contention, made Monday, that the “defamatory” article caused “extensive damage” to institutional and personal reputations.

And a third-party review of Rolling Stone’s reporting and editing process, expected to be released by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and published in Rolling Stone next month, is likely to raise more questions. The review will examine individual editing decisions that could potentially shed light on whether Erdely or the magazine exhibited reckless or malicious disregard for the truth – a central tenet of US libel law – when they published an apparently false story.

To be sure, there is little doubt that Rolling Stone’s admittedly flawed reporting damaged the reputation of Phi Kappa Psi, as well as the University of Virginia more broadly. Libel law primarily protects private individuals. (Old English law, on which modern libel law is built, says "libel ... must descend to particulars and individuals.") However, small groups of private people and even public individuals like Hollywood stars have won libel lawsuits. The university would likely be hard pressed to fit into that category of exceptions, but the fraternity may indeed have a case.

But even though Rolling Stone remains at “substantial risk of defamation liability,” as UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh writes, Phi Kappa Psi also has some thinking to do about whether bringing a lawsuit would do more harm than good to its reputation.

Firstly, in finding no evidence that a rape took place, Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo also noted that there may still be truth to Jackie’s story since “I can’t prove that something didn’t happen.”

Secondly, for all its missteps, Rolling Stone never names any alleged perpetrator specifically in its story, and it’s doubtful whether any of the details in the story would point anyone to a specific, identifiable person. That doesn't negate a libel claim, but does set the bar higher for success.

Thirdly, at a time when growing numbers of fraternities find themselves banned from campuses after revelations of racist or sexist behavior, a libel trial could potentially reveal unflattering details about the fraternity’s history and culture.

Suing Rolling Stone “could backfire on you,” Rodney Smolla, a University of Georgia law professor, told the National Law Journal. “If you’ve got things you’re not proud of that are there, then do not bring the case because all of that will come out and it will cause you more damage than good.”

Acknowledgement by police that they have no evidence to prove that Jackie’s story is true certainly adds strength to any libel claim the fraternity may make against Rolling Stone.

Yet the policy thrust of Rolling Stone’s piece – that universities like UVA do too little to address a real problem on campus – touches on what many Americans believe is a real problem on US colleges, one that the Obama administration has tried to solve by pushing colleges to make it easier for women to report sexual assaults and for universities to seek redress.

In the wake of the Rolling Stone story, the University of Virginia forced fraternities to take extra steps to protect guests, including mandating that at least three brothers have to remain sober at fraternity functions.

“Accurate or not, the Rolling Stone article heightened scrutiny of campus sexual assaults amid a campaign by President Barack Obama to end them,” writes Michael Martz of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

And even as Phi Kappa Psi mulls whether to sue Rolling Stone for tarnishing its reputation without facts, a Virginia state task force on campus sexual violence says it will soon report some sobering findings.

"This issue will not, and should not, be pushed back into the shadows," said task force chairman and Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring.
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