U-Va. fraternity to rebut claims of gang rape in Rolling Stone

Washington Post ^ | December 5, 2014 | T. Rees Shapiro

[C19fan]

A lawyer for the University of Virginia fraternity whose members were accused of a brutal gang rape said Friday that the organization will release a statement rebutting the claims printed in a Rolling Stone article about the incident. Several of the woman’s close friends and campus sex assault awareness advocates said that they also doubt the published account.

Officials close to the fraternity said that the statement will indicate that Phi Kappa Psi did not host a party on Sept. 28, 2012, the night that a university student named Jackie alleges she was invited to a date party, lured into an upstairs room and was then ambushed and gang-raped by seven men who were rushing the fraternity.

[AppyPappy]

You scoff but fraternities are popular with gay men. Many of my brothers are gay. They are drawn to the camaraderie.

[SES1066]

Phi Kappa Psi did not host a party on Sept. 28, 2012

For the 'New Media' and the crowd that gets its news from the comedy shows, fact checking is just so yesterday!

[CondorFlight]

How many hours have the police put in investigating this since the story came out; and does Jackie have to repay them for those hours?

[dfwgator]

Facts just get in the way.

[SampleMan]

So will Rolling Stone being writing a check to the fraternity for seven figures or eight?

[Lorianne]

Not only that, but they ‘rush’ in the Spring, not the Fall.

[samtheman]

Looks like Will Dana is the ignorant slut in this story.

[samtheman]

The correct term is Fake But Accurate, per Dan Rather.

[sphinx]

The left will now sidestep into “fake but accurate mode.” The alleged incident is a composite: a rape happened, but not to this particular girl; it involved a college, but it was not at UVA, and not on campus or at a fraternity; there was indeed a gang rape, but not by seven frat boys; a table was in fact broken, but the rape occurred elsewhere; and the girl’s friends did indeed urge her not to report the incident, but that was in reaction to an unwelcome pass, not a sexual assault. So, basically true.

[Polynikes]

“They probably also have a new opening for a reporter”

They also better have an open checkbook because the way this is looking a 3rd year law student could sue them into oblivion. Next stop Chapter 7 BK. Kaboom!

[samtheman]

For the 'New Media' and the crowd that gets its news from the comedy shows, fact checking is just so yesterday!

Well said. Bravo.

[Jim Noble]

If it turns out to be a hoax, this will be a huge black eye to Rolling Stone

Black eye, hell.

It's straight out libel, with malice, and they will owe this house and its national millions of dollars.

[Swordmaker]

This story had "fantasy" written all over it. There were so many red flags in it my BS 'o' meter was pegged by the time I had reached a thousand words into it.

1. She is invited to a Frat "Date party" by "Drew," a co-worker iife-guard at the pool where she works, who at the party suggests they go upstairs where it will be quieter than the noisy party atmosphere where hundreds are drinking and carousing. A specific date in late September is given in the story. . . yet the college records and the Frat show no party was held during the two weeks surrounding that date.

2. "Drew" leads her upstairs to a room where she enters a room where she is immediately grabbed by another man and "Drew," with another Frat brother, proceeds to direct seven pledges in a gang rape "initiation task," goading some who are reticent saying things such as "we had to do it, so you have to do it, too!" and "you want to become a brother don't you?" and calling the rapists names like "Armpit" and "Blanket."

3. She is attacked in the "a pitch-black, totally dark room" yet the perps and she can apparently see everything that is occurring and she recognizes one of her rapists as a boy she shares a discussion class with? The two Frat member directors are giving specific directions to the pledges about how to rape her.

4. She is immediately attacked and she and her attacker "Crash through a "Glass coffer table and glass shards cut into her back while she is repeatedly raped for 3 hours" on the bed of shards. . . yet none of the seven rapists is at all worried about having his penis or other extremities sliced to shreds on the glass in his attack on glass?

5. Another attacker kneels on her hair to keep her down and puts his hand on her mouth, which she bites. He then begins hitting her face with his fists. Yet she THEN says she thinks that "They are now going to turn on the lights, every one will get up and this will just be a Frat prank and we'll all have a good laugh," after being hit with someone's fists???

6. She describes the rapes in graphic terms that sound as if they come from a porn novel. . . strange.

7. During a "Date Party," which is actually a much smaller party than a free-for-all type frat party, nine fraternity brothers and/or pledges, approximately 20% of the membership, leave their own dates and disappear for up to three hours to spend time raping another frat brother's date. . . and their absence is not noticed by their dates?

8. She awakens hours later (3AM) to an empty room, goes downstairs where she finds the party still going full swing, and nobody notices a blood covered girl in a tattered blood-stained dress, and exits through a "side-entrance."

9. She finds herself lost. Calls her friends. "Something bad has happened. Come find me!" When her two male and one female best friends arrive to find her bloodied and raped, she tells them her story, they TALK HER OUT of calling the police or even going to the hospital for care because "She would be ostracized for the next four years and THEY and SHE would never be invited back to another Frat party and the two boys would not be rushed for the Frats they wanted to join!" Say WHAT?

10. A WEEK LATER, the victim runs into "Drew" at the pool and he says "Are you avoiding me? I had a good time the other night. How about you?" She merely changes her work schedule to avoid running into him.

11. She continues taking the same discussion class with her other recognized rapist bur feels "uncomfortable." WHAT?

12. A year or so later, she starts talking about it and then says she gets animosity from UVA students up to the point someone throws a glass bottle at her which BREAKS on her face, bruising her cheek and eye. Think about that. A bottle thrown with enough force to break on one's face? Bone is far less tough a substance than is glass. The bones of the cheek and the orbit of the eye would break first. . . and at least her skin would be broken. Yet all she got out of was some minor bruising. It's a great tale adding verisimilitude, but not at all believable. Bottles are hard to break.

13. She finally tells the administration of the University of Virginia about the gang rape, still showing the bruise from the bottle attack. . . and the dean tells her to keep it quiet. They don't want the bad publicity. . . and dismisses her distress. This is, apparently, the "normal culture of rape" at the campus. . . she should just suck it up.

14. After the story, UVA students are crying foul because all rushing and pledging for Fraternities and Sororities at UVA happen in MARCH, not September. . . and has been that way since 1999.

15. These Frat brothers are really courageous or completely stupid! They allowed their victim to just leave after gang raping her, a major felony. . . putting their entire futures in her hands, somehow being sure she would NOT go the the authorities and report the heinous crime KNOWING that at least one of the rapists, the ring leader, "Drew," was completely identifiable, as well as that every other was a member or pledge of a well known fraternity at the University. They put their lives and futures in the hands of a brutalized rape victim totally expecting her complete silence about their crime. RIGHT, SURE. . . that's totally believable. And they do this as a TRADITIONAL PLEDGE ACTIVITY EVERY YEAR??? I vote for totally incredible. . . in the original archaic meaning of the word. NOT BELIEVABLE.

As I said, my BS 'o"Meter was pegged to the max. I am surprised the mainstream media. . . oh, wait, what am I saying. . . of course they swallowed this tripe, hook, line, and sinker! It plays right into everyone of their prejudices. . . and hits the trope of the college culture of rape!

[windcliff]

I hope they sue them to the point that the rag folds.

[Chickensoup]

Will Dana, Rolling Stone’s managing editor, also released a statement with new doubt. “In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced,” he said in a statement.

_________________

Sue them into the middle of next week. It would be great if the frat took RS down.

[CondorFlight]

“There were so many red flags in it my BS ‘o’ meter was pegged by the time I had reached a thousand words into it.”

Ditto. So what was wrong with the reporter and the RS editor(s) who let this pass?

[tanknetter]

You have a link to that post, or mind recounting it here? Would be very interesting to know what show it was from, how the points all matched up, etc.

Thx!

[vladimir998]

Yep, many of those same details made me wonder too.

[rottndog]

Hopefully a big fat lawsuit will convert the Rolling Stone to a Sitting Pebble.

[Swordmaker]

Rolling Stone did not vet the story correctly. Their level of “Due Diligence” became rampant and malicious legal incompetence. I hope the fraternity owns Rolling Stone when the lawsuit is over.

Perhaps Rolling Stone is hanging it's hopes that the class action lawsuit from every member of Phi Kappa PSU, is just moss that won't stick to their rolling stone