Three University of Virginia graduates and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity brothers are suing Rolling Stone magazine and journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely for defamation, claiming that an article that ran in December 2014 and has since been retracted identified them as participants in a gang rape.
George Elias IV, Stephen Hadford, and Ross Fowler filed the lawsuit in New York federal court on Wednesday, and are seeking more than $75,000 for "mental anguish and severe emotional distress" caused by the article and its aftermath, The Washington Post reports. The story centered around a junior referred to as Jackie, who said that during a September 2012 party at the University of Virginia Phi Psi house, she was raped by seven fraternity members as two older brothers watched.
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