Day 17: Jury awards $3 million in Rolling Stone defamation trial

As former UVA dean Nicole Eramo’s marathon $7.5 million defamation suit against Rolling Stone rolled into its fourth week, a jury awarded her $3 million in damages Monday for the magazine’s November 2014 story, “A Rape on Campus.” “This was nothing short of a complete repudiation of Rolling Stone and Sabrina Erdely’s malicious journalism,” said […]

Day 13: Attorneys make final pitches in Rolling Stone trial

It was closing argument day November 1 in U.S. District Court, the site of former UVA associate dean Nicole Eramo’s defamation trial against Rolling Stone for its now-retracted “A Rape on Campus,” and lawyers for both sides spent more than three hours each trying to sway the jury to find for their clients. Plaintiff’s attorney Tom Clare noted the “tremendous […]

Day 12: Judge tosses part of Eramo’s suit against Rolling Stone

The third week of former UVA dean Nicole Eramo’s $7.5 million defamation trial against Rolling Stone began October 31, and in a nod to Halloween, Eramo chose black and orange attire for her court appearance. Her attorney, Libby Locke, came in sporting crutches, but those were not a costume and came from a sprained ankle […]

Day 10: Rolling Stone’s remorse in defamation trial

The final Thursday witness for the plaintiff in the $7.5 million libel trial against Rolling Stone was Sara Surface. A friend to Jackie, Surface seemed to have a purpose in alleging that reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely had prejudged plaintiff Nicole Eramo. “She disregarded me because I didn’t fit the narrative,” said Surface. An email released […]

Bad memory: Jackie testifies on Day 7 of Rolling Stone trial

If “yes, to my great regret” has become the stock answer for remorseful Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely, then her protagonist in the now-discredited gang rape tale—the one who sent a college into chaos two years ago—has found a mantra of her own: “I don’t remember.” Before a hushed courtroom in downtown Charlottesville, a […]

Day 3: Testimony gets heated in Rolling Stone trial

  If yesterday was an emotional sob fest, Wednesday’s proceedings in UVA administrator Nicole Eramo’s defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone were much calmer, with the leading ladies in the suit—plaintiff Eramo and defendant/reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely—both taking the stand and both sparring with opposing counsel. It was not without emotion, however. At the lunchtime recess […]

Day 1: Jurors selected in Eramo v. Rolling Stone defamation trial

Nearly two years after Rolling Stone put UVA in the national spotlight with an article called “A Rape on Campus,” 100 potential jurors crammed into U.S. District Court October 17 for the start of a 12-day trial to determine whether the magazine, reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely and Wenner Media LLC defamed former UVA associate dean […]