A jury has awarded former University of Virginia dean Nicole Eramo $3 million in damages over the way she was portrayed in a now-retracted article in Rolling Stone.
The article claimed a young woman named “Jackie” was gang-raped at a U.Va. fraternity as part of an initiation, and school administrators, including Eramo, were cold and indifferent to her claim. That accusation turned out to be false, as no party was held the night of the alleged gang rape and the man who allegedly took Jackie on a date and orchestrated the rape didn’t even exist.
Rolling Stone author Sabrina Rubin Erdely had already decided on what kind of article she wanted to write prior to her research. She wanted to find a story of a horrific rape, and use it to claim that colleges and universities are indifferent to such acts. As a lawyer for Eramo said in his closing statements: “Once they decided what the article was going to be about, it didn’t matter what the facts were.”
That reckless disregard resulted in an article about a fake rape, which claimed the dean responsible for helping sexual assault accusers didn’t care about them. Accusers told Erdely that she portrayed Eramo incorrectly, but she didn’t change her article.
Rolling Stone even included a doctored photo of Eramo with a sinister filter that made it appear as though she was giving a thumbs-up while a young woman cried in her office. The real photo was taken in a classroom, with Eramo holding a pen, not giving a thumbs-up.
The jury decided that Erdely would be responsible for $2 million of the total sum (an amount she is unlikely to afford) and $1 million from Rolling Stone. As attorney Leslie Loftis notes, due to Virginia law, Rolling Stone will end up shouldering most of the burden.
Eramo had sought $7.5 million in damages. A lawsuit from the fraternity named in the article is also seeking $25 million from the magazine, and their case will likely be bolstered by the outcome of Eramo’s.
This sum pales in comparison to the amount a jury awarded former wrestling star Hulk Hogan after he sued Gawker. That jury awarded him $140 million. The amount awarded to Eramo might not bankrupt Rolling Stone, but confirmation of the magazine’s journalistic malpractice may end up costing much more.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
