The associate dean of students at the center of Rolling Stone magazine’s discredited exposé on an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia has sued the publication for $7.5 million in damages, The Washington Post reports. Nicole Eramo’s lawsuit, filed on Tuesday against the magazine and the article’s author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, states that the article permanently marred Ms. Eramo’s reputation and caused her emotional distress.
“Rolling Stone and Erdely’s highly defamatory and false statements about Dean Eramo were not the result of an innocent mistake,” says the lawsuit, which was filed in a Virginia court. “They were the result of a wanton journalist who was more concerned with writing an article that fulfilled her preconceived narrative about the victimization of women on American college campuses, and a malicious publisher who was more concerned about selling magazines to boost the economic bottom line for its faltering magazine, than they were about discovering the truth or actual facts.”
Ms. Eramo first spoke publicly about the infamous article last month, when she wrote a letter to the magazine’s publisher saying its retraction and apology were “too little, too late.” Earlier that month, the Columbia Journalism Review published an analysis of the article that concluded it was a “journalistic failure.” Following the review’s publication, Ms. Erdely also publicly apologized.
Days earlier, the police department in Charlottesville, Va., said it had suspended its investigation of the alleged assault after finding no evidence to support the victim’s account.
Rolling Stone did not immediately respond to the Post’s request for comment.
