UVa’s First Pick to Lead Rape Inquiry Is Alumnus of Fraternity in Question

After an article in Rolling Stone described the case of a student who was gang-raped at a University of Virginia fraternity house, the university on Thursday commissioned an investigation led by a former U.S. deputy attorney general. There was one problem, however: The choice, Mark Filip, was once a member of Phi Kappa Psi, the fraternity where the assault is alleged to have happened.

The state’s attorney general, Mark R. Herring, said on Friday that Mr. Filip would not be leading the investigation after all, reports The Daily Progress, a newspaper in Charlottesville, Va. “This is a necessary step, and the independence and objectivity of the review must be unimpeachable,” Mr. Herring said in a written statement.

The Rolling Stone article, “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVa,” published on Wednesday, takes to task both students and administrators for perpetuating a campus culture of silence about rape.