NEW YORK (AP) — A defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine over the magazine’s debunked article about a University of Virginia gang rape has been tossed out by a judge.
U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel in Manhattan said Tuesday the lawsuit brought by three former fraternity members cited comments that were offered as speculation and hypothesis rather than fact.
He noted that none of the three members of Phi Kappa Psi were identified by name or physically described in the November 2014 article that described in chilling detail a student’s account of being raped by seven men at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house in September 2012.
The men — George Elias IV, Stephen Hadford and Ross Fowler — were members of the fraternity at the time but have since graduated.
“Their defamation claims are directed toward a report about events that simply did not happen,” Castel wrote.
An investigation by Charlottesville, Virginia, police found no evidence to back up the claims of the woman identified in the article as “Jackie.” Rolling
Stone retracted the article and the magazine’s managing editor and the article’s author both apologized.
The Phi Kappa Psi members brought the lawsuit last year, claiming the article caused them humiliation and emotional distress.
