Former UVa Associate Dean Nicole Eramo has reached a settlement in the libel suit brought against Rolling Stone, the magazine’s parent company Wenner Media, and writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely, according to a motion for voluntary dismissal filed Tuesday by Ms. Eramo’s lawyers.
In the original defamation lawsuit, Ms. Eramo asserted that the November 2014 article “A Rape on Campus” by Ms. Erdely defamed her and portrayed her as a villain indifferent to sexual assault on campus. The later debunked article depicted the story of “Jackie”, a student who said she was the victim of rape at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party.
However, later investigation by the Charlottesville Police yielded no evidence to support Jackie’s claims. Rolling Stone retracted the article in April 2015, following a critical report published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
The settlement comes after a federal jury found that Ms. Eramo was libeled by Rolling Stone and awarded her $3 million in damages, with $2 million to be paid by Ms. Erdely and $1 million to be paid by Rolling Stone and its parent company.
