Go get ’em…
A University of Virginia dean who was featured prominently in Rolling Stone’s discredited rape story has penned an open letter criticizing the magazine’s portrayal of an indifferent response by her and the university as “false and grossly misleading.”
Nicole Eramo, associate dean of students at U.V.A., has also hired an Alexandria-based law firm specializing in defamation cases, a sign she may be preparing legal action against the magazine. Rolling Stone’s recent apology and retraction, Eramo said, are “too little, too late.”
“Rolling Stone also deeply damaged me both personally and professionally,” Eramo wrote in letter to Rolling Stone dated Wednesday. “Using me as the personification of a heartless administration, the Rolling Stone article attacked my life’s work.”
In her first extensive public comments since the story was published in November, Eramo said much attention has been focused on the inaccuracies in the rape account involving the story’s main subject, a student identified only as “Jackie.” There has been less focus, Eramo said, on the article’s “false account of the university’s attitude regarding sexual assault.”
“The article portrayed UVA students as callous social climbers, undermined the work of our student advocates and made our administrators appear manipulative and uncaring,” Eramo wrote.
Eramo said she encouraged Jackie to report the alleged incident to authorities, and arranged for the student to meet with detectives “almost immediately” after hearing specific details about assault allegation. The U.Va. freshman met with investigators twice at Eramo’s encouragement, Eramo said, but chose not to pursue a criminal investigation. Eramo has also denied saying parents would not want to send their daughters to “the rape school,” a quote attributed to her in the article.
“These are all things that Rolling Stone would have figured out if its reporters, editors and fact checkers had not made a calculated decision not to contact sources who would have contradicted Rolling Stone’s preconceived storyline,” Eramo wrote.
Eramo said the article and media appearances by its author, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, inaccurately stated that Eramo did little in response to Jackie’s rape account and sought to bury it.