Rolling Stone will pay a University of Virginia administrator $3 million after a federal jury determined the magazine defamed her in a now-discredited article from 2014.
Nicole Eramo, a dean who was poorly portrayed in an article about an alleged gang rape at a fraternity house, had sued for $7.5 million. As the Associated Press reports:
The jury concluded Friday that the magazine, its publisher and journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely were responsible for libel, with actual malice.
As part of her testimony, Eramo said she experienced suicidal thoughts after the article was published. Rolling Stone is covering the legal fees of the reporter who wrote the original article.
While the article was widely circulated after it published, sparking a fierce national debate about sexual assault on college campuses, it was soon after debunked. Police in Charlottesville found no evidence to support the article’s allegations. Later, the reporter of the story revealed she never spoke to alleged perpetrators of the gang rape.