| UVA Rape Story Collapses; Duke Lacrosse Redux | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 5 2014, 01:45 PM (60,409 Views) | |
| abb | Oct 6 2016, 04:47 AM Post #1411 |
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http://www.nbc29.com/story/33324516/court-filings-offer-new-details-in-rolling-stone-defamation-suit CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Court documents are illuminating how a 10-day, multimillion dollar federal trial will unfold later this month. Documents recently filed in United States District Court Western District of Virginia in Charlottesville detail who will be called to testify in a defamation case that centers on a redacted Rolling Stone Magazine article, as well as the volumes of evidence that will be used to sway a jury. In November 2014, the magazine published "A Rape on Campus" by Sabrina Rubin Erdely. In the article, a student referred to as "Jackie" described being gang raped at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at the University of Virginia in September of 2012. Rolling Stone Magazine has redacted and apologized for the article. UVA Associate Dean of Students Nicole Eramo is suing the magazine, its publisher, and Erdely because she claims the article cast her as the chief villain. Eramo is seeking $7.5 million in damages. Lawyers on both sides plan to submit a total of nearly 1,000 pieces of evidence, and the court could hear more than 50 testimonies. According to court documents, Eramo’s legal team will call 17 witnesses to the stand, including the woman at the center of the discredited article, Jackie. Eramo’s lawyers have also listed 642 trial exhibits, including media articles, press releases, emails and texts, as well as Google analytic results. The 10-day trial is scheduled to start October 17. http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/wvir/documents/eramo-defendant-exhibit-list.pdf http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/wvir/documents/eramo-defendant-original-motion091616-witness-list.pdf http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/wvir/documents/eramo-defendant-support-motion-witness-list.pdf http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/wvir/documents/eramo-defendant-witness-list.pdf http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/wvir/documents/eramo-plaintiff-exhibit-list.pdf http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/wvir/documents/eramo-plaintiff-witness-list.pdf |
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| Quasimodo | Oct 6 2016, 07:26 AM Post #1412 |
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Good thing Judge Beaty isn't around to complain that they have too many documents in their case... |
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| abb | Oct 8 2016, 04:30 AM Post #1413 |
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http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local/uva/judge-rules-on-more-motions-in-rolling-stone-case-including/article_302b1ab7-bcb0-5dba-a960-8b43721149cc.html Judge: Rolling Stone case jury shouldn't watch 'Law & Order' despite alleged similarities BY DEAN SEAL - 10/7/16 With only a week before it goes to trial, attorneys for University of Virginia administrator Nicole Eramo and Rolling Stone magazine are trying to finalize the details of the multimillion dollar defamation lawsuit that the former associate dean filed last year. In the penultimate pre-trial hearing on Friday, a federal judge made several rulings in the case — including one ruling to prohibit Eramo’s attorneys from playing an episode of “Law & Order” for the jury. Eramo is seeking $7.85 million from the magazine, its publisher and author Sabrina Rubin Erdely over a now-debunked article, “A Rape on Campus,” published in November 2014. The piece was intended to be an expose on the culture of sexual assault at elite colleges and universities around the country. Erdely chose to highlight UVa in her piece, and much of her 9,000-word article centered on the experiences of a now-former UVa student dubbed “Jackie.” Jackie, who has never been publicly identified, claimed that during her first year at the school, she was gang-raped by seven men at a fraternity house. In the aftermath, Jackie said that the university took strides to suppress her claims — Eramo, who was a UVa associate dean charged with aiding student survivors of sexual assault, was mentioned several times in the article and was featured in a photo illustration that heralded the story’s print edition. After briefly stirring a whirlwind of controversy and a temporary suspension of UVa’s Greek life, the article and Jackie’s story fell apart under scrutiny. An investigation by Charlottesville police turned over no evidence to support her allegations, and a review by the Columbia Journalism School dubbed the article a “journalistic failure that was avoidable.” A month after Rolling Stone retracted the article, Eramo filed her suit, claiming that the story’s depiction of her as a callous and indifferent administrator severely damaged her career, reputation, physical and mental health. In the year and a half since the filing, attorneys for Eramo, Rolling Stone and Jackie have repeatedly clashed over a litany of issues in the case, fighting a dense war of words both in court and on paper. On Friday, the last of those motions were brought before the court. Most were housekeeping issues related to the admissibility of certain evidence and how that evidence will come into play during the two-week trial expected to start on Oct. 17. Among many things, the attorneys fought over the admissibility of reports from the Office for Civil Rights about UVa’s handling of sexual-assault cases. Eramo has moved to exclude the reports, calling them “highly misleading” as they pertain to Jackie’s specific case and their characterization of Eramo. Rolling Stone stated that the reports specifically call out Eramo and UVa’s ineffectiveness at dealing with sexual-assault cases and investigating perpetrators and are therefore relevant to the question of whether Erdely and the magazine acted with actual malice in pursuing and publishing the article. Judge Glen Conrad did question whether the report was truly relevant to Jackie’s case and if they showed how Eramo’s actions in Jackie’s case were “contrary to the well-established” protocol at UVa. Ultimately, Conrad said that the report spoke less to Eramo’s actions and more to the university’s, which are not at issue in this case. Speaking to that that OCR report and others, Conrad noted that attorneys for both sides needed to come to an agreement as to whether all of the post-publication reports, reviews, critiques, statements and more could be cumulatively admissible. Either they all have to be admissible, he said, or they each have to be relegated to talking points in the case, rather than being used as explicit pieces of evidence. Conrad further ruled that Eramo’s attorneys could not play some or all of an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” during the trial. Eramo had intended to show an episode in which a college freshman is gang-raped at a fraternity house — in Erdely’s reporting, Jackie had stated that she’d watched the episode with her father sometime between 2013 and 2014. It was around the same time that Jackie mentioned the episode that she also began to change her story about the alleged gang rape. Jackie had previously told friends that she’d been forced to perform oral sex on multiple men at the party, but changed her story to one of brutal gang rape around the same time she had spoken to Erdely about the “Law & Order” episode. Eramo’s attorneys intended to show that Erdely should have followed up with Jackie by watching the episode. In doing so, she may have seen the striking similarities between Jackie’s story and the one portrayed in the episode. Rolling Stone’s attorneys asked Conrad to exclude the evidence of the episode, saying that it would only serve to confuse the jury and serve as a “sideshow” to the broader issues at hand. Conrad asked whether the Columbia Journalism School had stated in their scathing review of Erdely’s reporting that she should have watched the episode. Hearing that the review did not make such a suggestion, Conrad said that exhibiting the episode would be “pretty far out in left field” and granted the motion to exclude the episode. Conrad will entertain one more pre-trial hearing on Tuesday before the case goes to trial the following week. The judge said Friday that he anticipated the trial to run for approximately 12 days, meaning it would stretch longer than its current two-week schedule. Dean Seal is a reporter for The Daily Progress. Contact him at (434) 978-7268, dseal@dailyprogress.com or @JDeanSeal on Twitter. |
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| abb | Oct 11 2016, 04:23 AM Post #1414 |
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http://www.nbc29.com/story/33359860/rolling-stone-accuses-eramo-of-leaking-confidential-video-to-abc Rolling Stone Accuses Eramo of Leaking Confidential Video to ABC Posted: Oct 10, 2016 9:33 PM CST Updated: Oct 10, 2016 9:33 PM CST CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Lawyers representing Rolling Stone, its publisher, and the author of a retracted rape article say the other side has leaked a deposition video. An emergency motion request ... accuses University of Virginia Associate Dean Nicole Eramo of leaking confidential deposition videos to ABC for use in a “20/20” feature about the case. That's set to air Friday night, just three days before trial. Eramo is suing for more than $7 million because she says the since debunked article -- about a rape at a UVA fraternity house -- portrayed her as a villain. Eramo's attorney fired back saying: “It is highly ironic that Rolling Stone, a media company, is complaining about the media having access to testimony that is already in the public domain. These depositions were filed publicly with the court for anyone to see. This is little more than a tactic by Rolling Stone to delay the trial.” A trial is set for Tuesday at 9 a.m. in federal court at Roanoke. |
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| Quasimodo | Oct 11 2016, 06:27 AM Post #1415 |
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How I would have loved to have seen the Brodhead deposition tape... |
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| abb | Oct 11 2016, 03:37 PM Post #1416 |
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http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/rolling-stone-accuses-u.va-administrator-of-leaking-video-wants-trial-delayed/article/2604265 Rolling Stone accuses U.Va administrator of leaking video, wants trial delayed By Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) • 10/11/16 3:38 PM Rolling Stone is accusing a University of Virginia dean of leaking a confidential deposition video relating to a lawsuit against the magazine over a now-retracted article involving a gang-rape hoax at the school. Lawyers for Rolling Stone, its publisher and the author of the article claim that dean Nicole Eramo, who is suing the magazine for defamation, leaked video of a deposition to ABC News to use in an upcoming "20/20" documentary of the case. The feature is supposed to air three days before the trial. The magazine requested an emergency motion to disallow the video from the trial, fearing the ABC feature could hurt the defense's case. The magazine also wants Eramo to be held in contempt. On Tuesday, a federal judge granted the magazine's motion to bar the video depositions from being used at trial. "ndoubtedly, many citizens in the Charlottesville Division will watch this sensationalized television broadcast about the University located in their backyard, or will access the program online," wrote Rolling Stone attorney W. David Paxton in court documents. "In the aftermath, seating an impartial jury in Charlottesville will be difficult, if not impossible." Rolling Stone has also requested ABC not use the video in its upcoming feature. Should ABC refuse and the show goes ahead as scheduled, then the magazine wants the case transferred to another district and the trial postponed. One of the videos in question shows Rolling Stone author Sabrina Rubin Erdely crying during her testimony, which ABC used in its trailer for the show. Eramo's attorney has responded by saying the depositions were in the public domain. "It is highly ironic that Rolling Stone, a media company, is complaining about the media having access to testimony that is already in the public domain," Eramo's attorney said. "These depositions were filed publicly with the court for anyone to see. This is little more than a tactic by Rolling Stone to delay the trial." Eramo's attorney argued that the videos only show what is already available as transcripts, which are part of the public record. Rolling Stone, however, told the judge in the case that videos and transcripts are different. "There is a vast difference between the public release of deposition transcripts and video testimony," the magazine said in court documents. "The latter — due to the nature of the video medium — engenders a much greater risk of abuse, harm, and embarrassment. This is already evident here, as ABC chose for its promotional trailer a public display of Erdely at her most vulnerable moment." The lawsuit comes from Eramo, who was portrayed in the now-retracted article as being dismissive of sexual assault accusations at U.Va. One accuser, Jackie, told her story to Rolling Stone, claiming she had been gang raped as part of a fraternity initiation. The author of the article, Erdely, and her editors made only half-hearted attempts to verify Jackie's story, which was ultimately proven to be a hoax. Rolling Stone plans to claim at trial that statements made in the article that accused Eramo of having "silenced" or "discouraged" Jackie from reporting the alleged gang rape to police be viewed as opinion, according to the Hollywood Reporter. |
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| abb | Oct 12 2016, 04:26 AM Post #1417 |
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http://www.nbc29.com/story/33363155/federal-judge-throws-out-leaked-deposition-tapes-in-eramo-lawsuit Federal Judge Throws Out Leaked Deposition Tapes in Eramo Lawsuit Posted: Oct 11, 2016 8:32 AM CST Updated: Oct 11, 2016 3:05 PM CST A federal judge in Roanoke is not going to allow lawyers to use video-taped depositions in next week’s defamation lawsuit over a retracted Rolling Stone Magazine article. Attorneys for the magazine are claiming former University of Virginia Associate Dean of Students Nicole Eramo leaked a video-taped deposition to a media outlet, which is set to be broadcasted Friday, just days before the trial is scheduled to start. Rolling Stone Magazine published "A Rape on Campus" by Sabrina Rubin Erdely in its November 2014 issue. In the article, a student referred to as "Jackie" described being gang raped at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at UVA in September of 2012. The magazine has redacted and apologized for the article. Eramo is suing the magazine, its publisher, and Erdely because she claims the article cast her as the chief villain. She is seeking $7.5 million in damages. Tuesday, October 11, the judge ruled that Eramo's legal team will not be able to introduce any video-taped depositions that were given to ABC’s 20/20 program. A promotional video for 20/20 shows Erdely wiping away tear during a taped deposition. The author has been subpoenaed to testify during the upcoming trial in Charlottesville. "In a criminal case, which gets a lot more publicity, there's an actual ethical rule that prohibits the prosecutor from leaking things and seeing that kind of publicity. It doesn't apply in a civil case, but as a rule of thumb, the judge couldn't have been pleased that in advance of a trial they were leaking these depositions," said legal expert David Heilberg. The same ruling could go for any other depositions that are broadcasted during the 20/20 program. "What he's actually done, I think as a practical matter, has given the defense the same right they would have in a criminal case and that's to confront your accuser," Heilberg said. Heilberg says not having a video-taped deposition tape to play in court can becomes an issue if the person on the stand changes their story. "In case the story changes in some way and you can challenge the witness, ‘no, that's not what you said at the deposition,’" the legal expert explained. Eramo’s legal team released a statement Monday, saying in part, "These depositions were filed publicly with the court for anyone to see. This is little more than a tactic by Rolling Stone to delay the trial." Rolling Stone Magazine released the following statement: We agree with the court's sanctions against plaintiff's attorneys as their actions were a serious violation of the protective order in this case. The evidence clearly shows that Rolling Stone did not set out to defame Eramo. We now look forward to the jury's decision. The 10-day jury trial is scheduled to start Monday, October 17. |
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| abb | Oct 12 2016, 04:31 AM Post #1418 |
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http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local/judge-grants-rolling-stone-motion-bars-eramo-from-using-videos/article_00bf550e-8fdd-11e6-8ebd-1f0b7b1582ee.html Judge grants Rolling Stone motion, bars Eramo from using videos she leaked to ABC BY DEAN SEAL 15 hrs ago (0) ROANOKE — A federal judge has granted an emergency motion from Rolling Stone magazine that bars University of Virginia administrator Nicole Eramo from using any deposition videos during her defamation trial that she leaked to a major television network. On Monday, the magazine said in a court filing that Eramo’s attorneys had violated a protective order when they gave ABC’s news program “20/20” confidential deposition videos for a broadcast scheduled to air Friday night, days before Eramo’s $7.85-million defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone is expected to finally go to trial. The motion called Eramo’s actions “improper” and argued that the release of the videos may taint the jury pool. They asked a judge to take some action against Eramo, whether it was a dismissal of the case or some lesser sanction, including a delay of the trial. In what was intended to be the case’s final pre-trial hearing in Roanoke on Tuesday, Judge Glen Conrad agreed that Eramo’s actions did violate the protective order and granted Rolling Stone’s motion. While he has not yet imposed any of the proposed sanctions, he did rule that any deposition videos Eramo gave to ABC are no longer permissible as evidence in the upcoming 12-day trial. After the hearing, an attorney for Eramo said that the number of tapes that must now be excluded is “to be determined.” Based on Tuesday’s hearing, it is clear that the entirety of the deposition of Sabrina Rubin Erdely — the author of the now-retracted article “A Rape on Campus” — will now be thrown out. It also appears that the deposition of “Jackie” — the former UVa student whose debunked allegations of a gang rape led to the article’s retraction — may still be in play, as it was not given to ABC. Attorneys for Eramo have thus far declined to comment on the ruling or how it may affect their trial strategy. In their filing, Eramo’s attorneys had defended their decision to turn over the videos and scoffed at the language used in Rolling Stone’s motion; the introduction of the filing reads: “Neither Ms. Eramo nor her counsel violated the court’s Amended Stipulated Protective Order. Period.” “There is no ‘emergency’ and neither injunctive relief nor sanctions are appropriate,” the filing reads. “[Rolling Stone’s] motion rests entirely on speculation, a misconstruction of the relevant law and an erroneous and tortured reading of the court’s protective order.” Eramo’s attorneys argued that the protective order in question did not distinguish between transcripts of the taped depositions, which already have been made public through court filings, and the actual videos of depositions. For that reason, the videos that were turned over were not protected by the court’s order, they argued. They also argued that the motion itself is a stalling tactic by Rolling Stone. Unsurprisingly, Rolling Stone took issue with this interpretation. “There is a vast difference between the public release of deposition transcripts and video testimony,” their motion states. “The latter — due to the nature of the video medium — engenders a much greater risk of abuse, harm and embarrassment. This is already evident here, as ABC chose for its promotional a public display of Erdely at her most vulnerable moment.” It is unclear whether Conrad will impose further sanctions on Eramo and her counsel before the trial starts on Monday. [The Daily Progress news app keeps you up-to-date. Click here to get the free iOS or Android app.] Outside of the emergency motion, Tuesday’s hearing was mostly devoted to settling the last remaining housekeeping matters in the case. Conrad said that the trial should not last any longer than 12 days, and for the sake of containing it to two weeks, he is considering having the trial run on Saturdays. Both sides of counsel also agreed Tuesday to having an unbiased party read the article in question aloud to the jurors before opening statements begin. Conrad intends to have at least five jurors deliberate in the case, but no more than seven, he said. He further indicated that he would be speaking with counsel for Jackie later in the day Tuesday to discuss confidentiality issues in the case. Jackie’s full name still has not been publicly disclosed, although her participation in the trial has been one of several factors at issue since Eramo filed her lawsuit in May 2015. Eramo alleges that she was unduly maligned when the article was published in November 2014. Originally intended to be an expose on the culture of sexual assault at elite universities, “A Rape on Campus” stirred both local and national outrage when it was first published, leading to a condemnation of UVa’s policies for handling sexual assault, as well as a temporary suspension of UVa’s Greek life. The centerpiece of the article was Jackie’s story, in which she claimed to have been brutally gang-raped by seven men at a fraternity house during her first year at UVa. That story quickly fell apart in the weeks following the article’s release and, eventually, an investigation by Charlottesville police found no evidence to support Jackie’s claims. A month after Rolling Stone retracted the article, Eramo filed suit. As the administrator charged with aiding survivors of sexual assault, Eramo was mentioned by name several times in the article. She alleges that the story characterized her as callous and uncaring to Jackie’s claims, and that her reputation, career and health were severely damaged in the wake of its release. Dean Seal is a reporter for The Daily Progress. Contact him at (434) 978-7268, dseal@dailyprogress.com or @JDeanSeal on Twitter. |
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| abb | Oct 12 2016, 01:23 PM Post #1419 |
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http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2604370/ ABC to air '20/20' feature on Rolling Stone rape hoax By Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) • 10/12/16 2:07 PM This Friday, ABC News will tackle the Rolling Stone gang-rape hoax, a story that captivated a nation through its initial publication and eventual debunking. The original article, published in November 2014, claimed that a young woman identified as "Jackie" had been gang-raped as part of a fraternity initiation when she was a freshman at the University of Virginia. Jackie and Rolling Stone author Sabrina Rubin Erdely claimed U.Va. dismissed the young woman's claims and tried to stop her from going to the police. But in the weeks after the article posted, thanks to skepticism from some pundits and reporters, and the intrepid reporting of the Washington Post's T. Rees Shapiro, the story fell apart. No party occurred at the fraternity the night of the alleged gang rape. Even worse, the man whom Jackie claimed brought her to the party after the two had a date didn't even exist. Rolling Stone eventually retracted the article, and the Columbia Journalism Review issued a report on the magazine's numerous missteps. After the article was retracted, the U.Va. dean who was shown as being dismissive of Jackie's claims, Nicole Eramo, sued the magazine. The trial for her lawsuit is set to begin next week. I mentioned yesterday in an article I wrote about the lawsuit that ABC may have received leaked deposition footage from the lawsuit. One video, included in the trailer for the ABC "20/20" feature, shows author Erdely crying during her testimony about her article. In the days and weeks after the article was published, Erdely was defiant in her defense of her article. The last tweet Erdely sent out was critical of a reporter who didn't call her a "journalist" while profiling her for her soon-to-be-debunked Rolling Stone article. ABC's program on the gang-rape hoax will air Friday, Oct. 14 at 10 p.m. ET. It will feature interviews with Eramo, Shapiro and friends of Jackie who helped debunk her story. |
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| abb | Oct 14 2016, 03:12 AM Post #1420 |
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/uva-dean-nicole-eramo-breaks-silence-retracted-rolling/story?id=42756368 UVA Dean Nicole Eramo Breaks Silence on Retracted Rolling Stone 'Rape on Campus' Article By EAMON MCNIFF Lauren Effron Oct 13, 2016, 1:42 PM ET University of Virginia Associate Dean of Students Nicole Eramo said she was made out to be public enemy No. 1 after Rolling Stone magazine published the now infamous and retracted article “A Rape on Campus.” Speaking publicly for the first time since the article was published almost two years ago, Eramo told ABC News “20/20” in an exclusive interview that her life has never been the same. “I’m never going to be where I was on Nov. 18 of 2014,” she said. “But I can hopefully recognize that person again.” Watch the full story on ABC News "20/20" this Friday, Oct. 14, at 10 p.m. ET The article, which Rolling Stone retracted after a Columbia Journalism School review ruled it a “failure that was avoidable,” centered on one young woman identified as “Jackie,” who was allegedly brutally gang-raped at a UVA fraternity house weeks into her first year at school. Many thought the article portrayed the university and Eramo, then the associate dean of students who handled Jackie’s case, as examples of the school-reputation-first response some sexual assault survivors say they receive from administrators on college campuses. Eramo said that Jackie first told her in May 2013 that she had been sexually assaulted at a UVA fraternity but that reading Jackie’s account in the Rolling Stone article was still a shock. “My heart sunk,” she said. “It was very different from what I knew of the story. So I was very confused at first, like, ‘Why wouldn’t she tell me?’ you know? ‘Why would she provide all this information and not provide it to me and let me help her?’ So that was kind of my first reaction.” Eramo said the way the article portrayed her support of Jackie was very misleading. “It portrayed her as a callous, indifferent administrator who became a false friend of Jackie in order to coddle her into not reporting her sexual assault beyond the bounds of Dean Eramo’s office,” said Libby Locke, one of Eramo’s lawyers. Eramo told ABC News that she could not discuss her interactions with Jackie beyond what was contained in court documents for her defamation lawsuit against the magazine in order not to violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The trial for Eramo’s $7.85 million defamation civil suit against Rolling Stone is expected to start Monday. The UVA chapter of Phi Kappa Psi, the fraternity named in the article, also brought a defamation suit against the magazine, for $25 million; it is scheduled go to trial in the fall of 2017. In the article, Jackie claimed that Eramo seemed to discourage her from going public with her allegations because she was worried about the university’s reputation and that Eramo said, “Nobody wants to send their daughter to a rape school.” Eramo told ABC News that she never said that and she would never make a statement like that to an alleged sexual assault survivor. When asked whether Jackie made up that statement, Eramo said, “I can’t say, but I know I didn’t say it.” Eramo was not interviewed for the Rolling Stone article because, she said, the university didn’t allow it, citing privacy laws. But she was mentioned in the article 31 times. “They made it look like I used the trust of, yeah, women to cover up rapes,” she said. “And that was so far from anything I would ever do. It was just unbelievable to me.” Eramo said that she was subjected to a barrage of hateful messages from readers in the aftermath and that she thought she was going to be fired. “And I just didn’t know if I could do it, honestly,” she said. “I went to work every day, and I tried to do it, but I wasn’t sure I could do it.” Eramo is still employed by the university, but she is no longer the associate dean of students. “I now work in the vice president for student affairs’ office for … planning and other more administrative — more of an administrative role,” she said. “So I don’t work with students as often … It’s been a very difficult adjustment to be in a different role and not, not have the privilege to be with students in that time of need.” Soon after the article was published, Jackie’s accounts of what happened that night were called into question. The Charlottesville Police Department launched an investigation into Jackie’s claims and concluded there was “no substantive basis to support the account alleged in the Rolling Stone article.” Despite her issues with the accuracy of the Rolling Stone article, Eramo said that she couldn’t speak out at the time because of privacy laws and that she couldn’t defend herself. “I can’t speak to the specifics of my interactions with students,” she said. “There was nothing I could do to speak what I knew wasn’t accurate ... and that was really difficult.” While Rolling Stone admitted that mistakes were made in reporting Jackie’s story and ultimately retracted the story, the magazine is fighting Eramo’s libel suit. Among other arguments, its attorneys cite a report from a Department of Education civil rights office investigation launched in 2011 that reviewed how several universities, including UVA, handled sexual assaults on campus as one reason UVA was chosen as the subject for the article. Rolling Stone points to the report’s conclusions, which were released in September 2015, among them that UVA “failed to respond in a prompt and equitable manner to many reports of sexual violence that were not filed as formal complaints” and that “statements made by a university official” — Eramo — “that were broadcast on the university’s radio station in September 2014 created a basis for a hostile environment for affected students.” In a statement to ABC News this week, Rolling Stone said, “Dean Eramo’s lawyers are attempting to shift the focus of her lawsuit in the media to Rolling Stone’s reporting errors surrounding Jackie, which is not the basis of her lawsuit. In fact, a multiyear review of sexual violence at UVA by the U.S. Department of Education found Dean Eramo to have specifically contributed to the university’s hostile environment for sexual assault victims — an assertion much more critical of Eramo than any statement from the article. The depiction of Dean Eramo in the article was balanced and described the challenges of her role. We now look forward to the jury’s decision in this case.” “Obviously, I don’t agree with that account,” Eramo said, referring to criticisms that she violated Title IX laws and created a hostile environment for students. “I think we were doing the best we could in a very difficult climate … I think everybody can improve. And I think we were trying to improve.” The Rolling Stone article was painful for Eramo, she said, not just because she cares about her students but also because she’s a UVA alum. As the former associate dean of students, she was also the chairwoman of UVA’s sexual misconduct board and on the front lines of dealing with those who said they were sexually assaulted on campus. She said the number of students she counseled went up year after year — a matter of pride for her, she said, because it meant more students were coming forward. “In 2006, I probably saw a handful of cases, and then by 2014, I know I had about 38 to 40 just sexual assault cases,” she said. “We know it’s an incredibly underreported crime, and so to have people feeling comfortable enough to come in and talk to me about it — we couldn’t do anything about things we didn’t know about.” UVA declined to comment to ABC News, and Jackie’s lawyers did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment. |
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| abb | Oct 14 2016, 03:14 AM Post #1421 |
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/oct/13/rolling-stone-magazine-scores-key-victory-court-ba/ Federal judge deals Rolling Stone a victory as magazine heads to trial over defamation claim By Ken Shepherd - The Washington Times - Thursday, October 13, 2016 A federal judge has dealt a significant setback to a college administrator seeking damages from Rolling Stone in a defamation lawsuit stemming from a discredited story the magazine published in November 2014 about an alleged sexual assault at a University of Virginia fraternity. The judge ruled former University of Virginia associate dean Nicole Eramo cannot present deposition testimony of Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the author of the Rolling Stone story, after the magazine said Ms. Eramo’s team leaked video of the depositions to ABC’s “20/20,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. A “20/20” segment about the case, featuring Ms. Eramo’s first interview since the scandal broke, is scheduled to air Friday, THR reported. Further complicating Ms. Eramo’s legal strategy as the trial gets underway Monday is U.S. District Judge Glen Conrad’s determination that she must show that any defaming statements in the article were “of and concerning” her particularly, THR reported. In a similar case, Rolling Stone enjoyed a victory in another federal courtroom in late June, when a judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by three members of the university’s Phi Kappa Psi chapter, finding that the claims in the article they said were defamatory in nature did not meet the law’s definition, which requires an assertion of fact. The fraternity members highlighted in particular quotes in the article which suggested there was a house policy requiring chapter pledges to rape a woman in order to earn membership. |
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| Quasimodo | Oct 14 2016, 10:12 AM Post #1422 |
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Perhaps another reason why it would have been a waste of time for the laxers to try and sue Newsweek (too many powerful government patrons) or the Times (ditto). But it would have been satisfying to see them dragged over the coals... |
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| abb | Oct 15 2016, 05:27 AM Post #1423 |
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/10/14/u-va-dean-speaks-publicly-on-2020-ahead-of-rolling-stone-trial-set-to-begin-monday/ U-Va. dean speaks publicly on 20/20 ahead of Rolling Stone trial, set to begin Monday By T. Rees Shapiro October 14 at 6:50 PM ABC News interviewed Nicole Eramo, the former University of Virginia administrator who is suing Rolling Stone magazine over a November 2014 story about a sexual assault. That story was discredited. (ABC News and 20/20) The University of Virginia administrator who is suing Rolling Stone magazine over a story about the school’s handling of an alleged gang rape says the 2014 account erroneously made it look like she “used the trust of young women to cover up rapes” and that the story devastated her. Nicole Eramo, who served as the U-Va. dean overseeing sexual assault cases on campus, spoke to ABC News 20/20 ahead of her defamation case, which is slated to go to trial Monday in federal court. In her first interview since the Rolling Stone story published, she describes feeling despondent when the article published and then worrying that the allegations against her would ruin her career — and her life. “It just really spun out of control,” Eramo says in the interview with Amy Robach, which will be featured Friday night in an hour-long 20/20 report. “There was nothing I could do to speak to what I knew wasn’t accurate.” Eramo, through her lawyers, has declined requests to speak with The Washington Post. In her lawsuit, Eramo alleges that the 9,000-word Rolling Stone account cast her as callous and indifferent to rape survivors, including Jackie, the main subject of the article. Jackie described being gang-raped by seven men in a fraternity house near campus during her freshman year in 2012; the article alleged the university mishandled the case. The magazine later retracted the article, written by journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely, after Jackie’s allegations unraveled as a result of reporting in The Washington Post and a Charlottesville Police investigation. Eramo is seeking more than $7.5 million from Rolling Stone in her defamation claim. Rolling Stone magazine released a statement saying that Eramo is seeking to shift the focus of her lawsuit to Rolling Stone’s reporting errors related to Jackie’s account, which the magazine says is not the basis of her lawsuit. “A multi-year review of sexual violence at U-Va. by the U.S. Department of Education found Dean Eramo to have specifically contributed to the University’s hostile environment for sexual assault victims — an assertion much more critical of Eramo than any statement from the article,” Rolling Stone said in the statement. “The depiction of Dean Eramo in the article was balanced and described the challenges of her role. We now look forward to the jury’s decision in this case.” WUVA online, a student-run media outlet, interviewed Nicole Eramo, an associate Dean of Students who heads the university's Sexual Misconduct Board. According to WUVA, the interview took place before a Rolling Stone story about an alleged gang rape at a fraternity at the University of Virginia. WUVA published the interview on Saturday. (WUVA INC.) “They made it look like I used the trust of young women to cover up rapes,” Eramo said. “And that was so far from anything I would ever do. It was just unbelievable to me.” [U-Va. students challenge Rolling Stone account of alleged sexual assault] Eramo also said that she believed the U-Va. administration was going to fire her. She was re-assigned and now no longer handles sexual assault allegations at the school. Eramo, who worked to help Jackie and encouraged her to go to the police with her allegations, told 20/20 that she was stunned when she read Jackie’s account in Rolling Stone. “After two years of litigation, Ms. Eramo’s legal team has uncovered damning evidence of Rolling Stone’s reckless disregard for the truth and Ms. Erdely’s pattern of willful avoidance of the facts,” Libby Locke, Eramo’s lawyer, said in a statement. “We are excited for a jury of Ms. Eramo’s peers to hear the evidence and to pass judgment on Rolling Stone’s false and defamatory article. We are confident that Ms. Eramo will prevail.” The 20/20 episode was set to premiere Friday at 10 p.m. The trial is scheduled to begin Monday in Charlottesville and is scheduled through Oct. 28. |
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| abb | Oct 15 2016, 05:34 AM Post #1424 |
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3839251/UVA-rape-survivor-claims-Jackie-Rolling-Stone-article-stole-story.html Rape survivor claims 'Jackie' in Rolling Stone article stole her story Liz Securro was raped at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party at UVA in 1984 She was initially struck by the similarities to her and Jackie's story Jackie claimed to have been gang raped at the same frat as a freshman Securro says she '100 percent absolutely believes' Jackie stole her story Believes Rolling Stone story was a 'really big setback' for rape survivors By Anneta Konstantinides For Dailymail.com Published: 21:10 EST, 14 October 2016 | Updated: 21:21 EST, 14 October 2016 A woman who was raped at the University of Virginia in the 1980s has claimed 'Jackie' from Rolling Stone's notorious campus sexual assault article stole her story. Liz Seccuro was struck when she read the magazine's article 'A Rape on Campus' and realized how similar her story was to its main source, identified only as 'Jackie'. Like Seccuro in 1984, Jackie claimed to have been raped during a party at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at UVA just weeks into her freshmen year on campus. Scroll down for video Liz Securro, who was raped at the University of Virginia in the 1980s, has claimed 'Jackie ' from Rolling Stone's notorious campus sexual assault article stole her story Liz Seccuro was struck when she read the magazine's article 'A Rape on Campus' and realized how similar her story was to its main source, identified only as 'Jackie' Both women had been bloodied in their vicious attacks, with Jackie claiming she was thrown into a glass table, the shards sticking into her back as she was abused. Seccuro wrote about her attack and its aftermath in the memoir Crash Into Me, released in 2011. 'Jackie' told her story to Rolling Stone writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely in 2014. The story was eventually retracted by the magazine after independent investigations by the Charlottesville Police, the Washington Post and Columbia University's Journalism School found out the article was riddled with unsubstantiated claims. Securro, who initially defended the story when it first came under fire for inaccuracies, said she now 'absolutely 100 percent' believes Jackie stole her story. The victim's rights advocate also told Good Morning America host Amy Robach that she no longer believes any of Jackie's story is true. 'That's not to say I think she's a bad person, I just think she needs help,' Seccuro said on ABC's 20/20 special 'What Happened to Jackie?' Securro added that she believes the firestorm caused by the article and Rolling Stone's eventual retraction was a 'really big setback' for sexual assault victims. 'There's a lot of people who want to run this into, "Women lie about rape all the time"', she told Robach. Like Seccuro in 1984, Jackie claimed to have been raped during a party at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity (pictured) at UVA just weeks into her freshmen year on campus Securro (pictured in college) was just 17 when she was raped at the university in 1984 'It's extraordinarily rare, the average is something like 3.8 percent. For the longest time, women who tell the truth have been marginalized and ignored.' When Erdely first reached out to Securro to be interviewed for the article, the author thought Jackie's story might change that. 'Here could have been a piece that changed the way Americans look at the epidemic of campus sexual assault,' she said. 'And in 9,000 keystrokes we were done.' Robach visited to the UVA campus for the special to examine how the article affected the school and the people inside it. 'I can't imagine a journalism school not talking about this story and teaching their students about how to avoid some of these pitfalls,' she told The Wrap. Robach also interviewed UVA Associate Dean of Students Nicole Eramo, whose defamation civil trial against Rolling Stone begins next week. Eramo, who has alleged the story portrayed her as being uncaring toward Jackie's claims, has said she became 'public enemy number one' following the story and that it changed her life and damaged her career. Jackie's story may not have been true, but Securro's very much was. Securro was only 17 when one of her dormmates asked her to be his date to a rush party at the Phi Psi fraternity. Securro, who initially defended the story when it first came under fire for inaccuracies, said she now 'absolutely 100 percent' believes Jackie stole her story The article, written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely (left), caused a firestorm when it was eventually retracted. Rolling Stone is being sued by UVA Associate Dean of Students Nicole Eramo (right) She lost him at the house and waited on a couch, where one of the fraternity members gave her a green drink he called the 'house special'. But after just a few sips, the college freshman knew something was 'extraordinarily wrong'. 'I could not feel my hands or feet,' she wrote in an article for the Daily Beast. 'My arms and legs began to feel numb. I started to panic, breathing shallowly and rapidly.' That's when a boy in glasses sat down next to her and began asking questions. He dragged her into another room, pinned her down with his arms, and began to rape Securro repeatedly. 'He beat me, despite my screams and my begging,' she wrote. 'I passed out from the fear and the pain'. The rest of the night came in bits and pieces. Securro remembered hearing voices, feeling hands on her. As the sun rose and light filled the room, she saw that she had been covered in nothing but a sheet - stained with her own blood. Securro tried to report it, but the dean of students at the time, a man named Robert Canevari, dismissed her claims. Securro added that she believes the controversy caused by the article and Rolling Stone's eventual retraction was a 'really big setback' for sexual assault victims As she sat in front of him, still covered in bruises, he told the freshman she 'had sex with a young man and didn't want my parents to know I wasn't a good girl'. The investigation into her rape wouldn't go anywhere until nearly 20 years later, when the man in the glasses wrote a letter to Securro. His name was William Beebe and he was confessing to her rape. He was arrested and in his trial it came out that two other men had allegedly attacked Securro that night. They were not charged due to lack of evidence. Beebe served less than five months in jail. Securro said she does not know if Jackie's story was influenced by her own, calling it a 'horrifying though'. But Securro has been outspoken in that, just as the article purported to reveal, she received no support from the university - even after her rapist confessed. 'The current administration has refused to speak with me about making change,' she said. 'They have refused to apologize, which is all I have ever wanted. I have not sued Phi Kappa Psi, the University of Virginia, or any of the individuals involved.' 'As survivors, we can punch the sky and howl at the moon for so long...but we all live alone with our fears and lingering trauma.' 'But we also live with healing, with love, with activism, with a voice.' |
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| abb | Oct 16 2016, 04:11 AM Post #1425 |
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http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/15/video-rolling-stone-reporter-wont-admit-uva-jackies-gang-rape-was-a-total-hoax/ VIDEO: Rolling Stone Reporter Won’t Admit UVA Jackie’s Gang-Rape Was A Total Hoax Posted By Blake Neff On 3:01 PM 10/15/2016 In | No Comments The disgraced reporter behind Rolling Stone’s retracted article, “A Rape on Campus” is still open to the possibility Jackie Coakley was gang-raped at the University of Virginia (UVA), according to a newly-released court deposition tape. The tape of testimony given by Sabrina Erdely was made as part of an ongoing $7.5 million defamation lawsuit by UVA Dean Nicole Eramo against Rolling Stone. Eramo claims Rolling Stone ruined her reputation and caused massive emotional distress by maliciously portraying her as a callous figure more interested in protecting UVA’s reputation than in addressing rape allegations. The deposition occurred last spring, but the video was only made public Friday as part of a story on ABC’s 20/20 about the UVA saga. Attorneys representing Rolling Stone have accused Eramo’s team of leaking the tape. WATCH: In the deposition, Erdely is asked whether she thinks Coakley actually was gang-raped, given revelations showing the supposed attack was apparently fabricated as part of a convoluted scheme to win the romantic interest of a boy she liked. Despite the revelations, Erdely indicated a rape may still have occurred. (RELATED: You Can Finally Read UVA Jackie’s Bizarre Catfishing Texts) “I have no way of knowing,” Erdely says. “I couldn’t possibly speculate.” In another part of the deposition, Erdely says it “never occurred to me” that Coakley was fabricating her story, because “she proved to be credible in so many different ways.” Erdely said her total trust in Coakley explained why she didn’t reach out to Ryan Duffin, a fellow student whose statements to other media outlets eventually helped expose Coakley’s claims as a sham. “I took her as a very credible source, and I took her at her word that he didn’t want to speak,” Erdely says. At one point in the deposition, Erdely breaks down in tears. “I had full faith in Jackie, and in her story,” Erdely says, her voice quivering. “Discovering that she had misled me, or had omitted information, it was, uh, it was just devastating.” The trial phase of Eramo’s lawsuit against Rolling Stone is set to begin Monday, with a ruling by the end of the month. Follow Blake on Twitter URL to article: http://dailycaller.com/2016/10/15/video-rolling-stone-reporter-wont-admit-uva-jackies-gang-rape-was-a-total-hoax/ |
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9:14 AM Jul 11