US District Judge P Kevin Castel ruled that the three former fraternity members who filed the lawsuit cited comments that were offered as speculation and hypothesis rather than fact.
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A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by three University of Virginia graduates who accused Rolling Stone magazine, its publisher Wenner Media and a journalist of defamation over a now-debunked article describing a gang rape.
The case’s dismissal comes as two other lawsuits regarding the article continue forward in the courts, including one filed by an associate dean at U-Va. and the other a more general claim from the undergraduate members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
The judge went on to say “the article’s details about the attackers are too vague and remote from the plaintiffs” circumstances to be “of and concerning’ them”.
The explosive story detailed an alleged 2012 gang rape that a first-year student identified as Jackie said she endured at the fraternity house.
George Elias IV, Ross Fowler and Stephen Hadford had sued the magazine and the author of the article, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, saying details in the story made it sound as if they were involved in the horrific – and completely concocted – rape of a woman identified only as “Jackie”. “Within five months of publication, Rolling Stone retracted the article and issued a written apology”, the judge noted. A second said the article suggested the rape was part of a fraternity initiation, and he was the rush chairman. Rolling Stone managing editor Will Dana, who helped edit Erdely’s article, resigned last August.
Alan Frank, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said his clients will review their options, including a possible appeal.
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The cover from the December 4 issue of Rolling Stone, which contained the story about the alleged gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house in 2012. It still has to beat a separate million lawsuit from the UVA chapter of Phi Kappa Psi.
