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Jury Finds 'Rolling Stone,' Reporter Liable for Damages Over Rape Allegation Story

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The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house is seen on the University of Virginia campus in 2014  (Photo: Jay Paul/Getty Images)

A federal jury has found that Rolling Stone, a reporter and the magazine’s publisher are liable in a defamation lawsuit over a 2014 article about an alleged rape at the University of Virginia.

The trial centered on an article by reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely that told the story of a student identified as “Jackie” who said she was brutally gang raped at a fraternity party.

But “several outlets, including The Washington Post, identified major inconsistencies in the reporting,” as The Two-Way has reported:

“Soon afterward, Rolling Stone retracted the story, saying the magazine had relied too much on “Jackie’s” account and did not adequately work to confirm her story.

“An investigation found that repeated, systematic failures within the magazine led to the article’s publication.”

Nicole Eramo, a former associate dean of students, sued for $7.85 million over how she was portrayed. As we reported, she “said the article painted her as the ‘chief villain’ of the story, full of indifference toward a sexual assault allegation.”

Damages have yet to be assessed.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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