Emails Show The Moment That Rolling Stone Reporter Realized The Source Why no Honor Code trial of Jackie Coakley in her Haven Monahan hoax A woman named Jackie Coakley (now McGovern), who was a student at UVa at the time, had an issue with a boy who was not paying her enough attention, or didn't see her as a romantic interest, or something like that. On April 5, 2015, Rolling Stone retracted the article and published the independent report on the publication's history.[1]. "Drew" eventually sent a photo of "himself" to Jackie's friends, but "the man depicted in that photograph never attended U. Va" and was a high-school classmate of Jackie. [147][148][149] Harvey A. Silverglate in The Boston Globe referenced the Rolling Stone article in opining that the college sexual assault "scare" follows a long tradition of runaway, exaggerated social epidemics that "have ruined innocent lives and corrupted justice. "A Rape on Campus" is a retracted, defamatory Rolling Stone magazine article[2][3][4] written by Sabrina Erdely and originally published on November 19, 2014, that describes a purported group sexual assault at the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville, Virginia. "[27] Jackie Coakley is a criminal and she needs to spend at least 20 years in jail, for two main reasons. [78], Fellow Jezebel writer Jia Tolentino wrote an analysis of Erdely's story and reported on fraternity rush after the Rolling Stone article was discredited. Irresponsible journalism unjustly damaged the reputations of many innocent individuals and the University of Virginia. "[172], Law & Order: SVU featured an episode titled "Devastating Story" in its 16th season whose plot was based on the UVA case. "[151], National Review columnist Jonah Goldberg has called for Phi Kappa Psi to sue Rolling Stone, while at least one legal expert has opined that there is a high likelihood of "civil lawsuits by the fraternity members or by the fraternity itself against the magazine and maybe even some university officials". Had they done so, of course, they might have realized that some of the. "[77] Merlan had also labeled journalist Richard Bradley's doubts about the article a "giant ball of shit". "[17] The main entrance is in the middle of the building's west side. "[91], Within days following the unraveling of the Rolling Stone story, the North American Interfraternity Conference, the National Panhellenic Council, and the Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee demanded that the University of Virginia "immediately reinstate operations for all fraternity and sorority organizations on campus" and issue an apology to Greek students. Rolling Stone was hardly innocent, but this whole episode cost them whatever reputation remained. Mr. and Mrs. Howard E. Andrews - The Intermountain When asked if Dana's departure was influenced by the debacle surrounding Erdely's article, the magazine's publisher responded that "many factors go into a decision like this". [57] A subsequent tweet sent by Rolling Stone managing editor Will Dana offered further comment on Erdely's story: "[W]e made a judgementthe kind of judgement reporters and editors make every day. [169], A further lawsuit by a number of members of the fraternity was greenlighted by a court of appeals on September 19, 2017, after originally being dismissed by a lower court in June 2016. The Columbia Journalism Review called the story "this year's media-fail sweepstakes" and the Poynter Institute named it as the "Error of the Year" in journalism. "[120], In response to these statements, Megan McArdle wrote in Bloomberg View, "Rolling Stone can't even apologize right. [44] However, media investigations have determined that no student named "Haven Monahan" has attended the University of Virginia;[45] the portrait of "Haven Monahan" is an image of a classmate of Jackie's in high school, who has never attended the University of Virginia;[46] the three telephone numbers through which "Haven Monahan" contacted Jackie's friends are registered "internet telephone numbers" that "enable the user to make calls or send SMS text messages to telephones from a computer or iPad while creating the appearance that they are coming from a real phone"[47] and love letters written by Jackie and forwarded by "Haven Monahan" to Ryan Duffin are largely plagiarized from scripts of the TV series Dawson's Creek and Scrubs. Quoting its legal consultant Mark Eiglarsh, the network reported that if Jackie "allegedly lied and that perpetrator suffered injury as a result, she could be sued for damages". There's a Chick-fil-A by our office. [134] Erdely furthermore reported that Office for Civil Rights Assistant Secretary Catherine E. Lhamon called Grove's statements at the meeting "deliberate and irresponsible". She decided to get the attention she wanted, by making up a completely baseless story about having been gang-raped at a fraternity house, Phi Kappa Psi (colloquially referred to as Phi Psi).She was then connected to the good folks at Rolling Stone magazine, which ignored all journalistic standards by publishing the account calling her just "Jackie" to protect her identity, mind you without doing a shred of research to validate any of the facts of the story. In the episode, Heather fabricates a gang rape at a fraternity. According to Charlottesville Police Capt. The media commentators noted that the claims of a rape culture's existence on campuses was not supported by U.S. government statistics or other measures. [23][24] A few days later, President Sullivan suspended all Greek organizations until January 9, 2015. Charles Johnson, a conservative writer with the site Got News, claims to have revealed the full identity and photograph of "Jackie," the woman who told Rolling Stone about her alleged gang rape. . [60] Wenner laid blame for the magazine's failures on Jackie. [16], Jackie's academic performance reportedly declined, and she became socially withdrawn due to emotional distress. But I have a pretty good notion that she violated some serious criminal statutes; after all, participating in a fraud involving the mails (a magazine) or wire (somewhere along the line) is a Federal issue. Jackie Coakley ("Jackie . In May 2014, with Drew about to graduate, she still didn't feel ready to file a complaint . In May 2013, Jackie reported the sexual assault to dean and head of UVA's Sexual Misconduct Board, Nicole Eramo, who, according to a recap in New York magazine, offered three options: "file a criminal complaint with the police, file a complaint with the school, or face her attackers with Eramo present to tell them how she feels". "[21][22], The next day, Phi Kappa Psi voluntarily suspended chapter activities at UVA for the duration of the investigation. Flanagan noted that "what Rolling Stone has pushed me into is that I have now become someone who is on the side of fraternities and defending fraternities. [146], Media sources and commentators discussed the allegations in the context of the reported "rape culture" or a rampant sexual assault epidemic that activists had claimed existed on U.S. college campuses. [42], The article uses the pseudonym "Drew" to refer to a third-year student at the University of Virginia who takes Jackie to the fraternity party where the alleged rape takes place. He eventually claims he met her in the hospital. On March 23, 2015, police noted that Jackie refused to cooperate with law enforcement during the investigation. The trio also sent text messages to a phone number Jackie said was the mobile phone of her date and were surprised that the owner of the phone number responded primarily with flattering messages about Randall, whom Jackie was romantically interested in. When you walk in, the line to order is directly in front of you, with the cash registers just ahead and off to the right. [60][117] However, Coco McPherson, who is in charge of Rolling Stone's fact-checking operation, said, "I one-hundred percent do not think that the policies that we have in place failed. More details have emerged about the life of Jackie Coakley, the young woman who had a fake story published in Rolling Stone about a rape that she claimed happened to her at the University of Virginia. [47], In Erdely's story, Jackie sank into depression after the alleged rape and was holed up in her dorm room for a while. Lindy West said that female rape victims will probably be less likely to report sexual assaults for fear of being questioned by "some teenage 4Channer". . "[29], Richard Bradley, editor-in-chief of Worth magazine, was among the first mainstream journalists to question the Rolling Stone article, in a blog entry written on November 24, 2014. Sabrina Erdely would also continue to write for Rolling Stone. [161] On November 4, 2016, after 20 hours of deliberation,[162] a jury consisting of eight women and two men found Rolling Stone, the magazine's publisher and Erdely liable for defaming Eramo. "[144] Writing for Bloomberg, Zara Kessler observed that, "suddenly, every Cosby accuser is a potential 'Jackie'although we don't yet know precisely what it means to be a 'Jackie.' UVA President Teresa Sullivan acknowledged that the story was discredited. They said that no pledges were resident in the fraternity at the time Erdely claimed. Someone else kneels on her hair. No one says 'UVrApe'; no one I know has ever heard the Rugby Road-themed 'traditional fight song' that poetically ('fuck for 50 cents'/'panties on the fence') separated the article's sections Jackie was lying, and railroaded into the spotlight on a story that now appears to be a PTSD-laced delusional flashback. [164] The lawsuit was settled on April 11, 2017. [131], One month after the publication of the Rolling Stone article, the Rector of the University of Virginia, George Keith Martin, accused the magazine of "drive-by journalism" when he stated, "Like a neighborhood thrown into chaos by drive-by violence, our tightly knit community has experienced the full fury of drive-by journalism in the 21st century. There's some reporting on the university's culture, which shouldn't be taken seriously in light of the fraud exposed by the police; there's some reporting on the university leadership's approach to the issue, which shouldn't be taken seriously in light of the fraud exposed by the police. "[80] An editorial in the Boston Herald declared: "a fifth-grader would've done some basic fact-checking before potentially ruining men's lives" before repeating the call for the firing of Rolling Stone staff involved in the story. Oh, the earth spun a little slower, or faster metaphors fail me when it comes to stuff like this. [83] Christina Hoff Sommers, being interviewed by John Stossel for Reason, commented that the story "proved to be a sort of gothic fantasy, a male-demonizing fantasy. UVA Jackie May Have Just Been Caught In Another Big Lie Teresa Sullivan, the president of UVa, promptly shut down all the fraternities and, bizarrely, the sororities as well (don't ask), in a "ready, fire, aim" response, without allowing even the Phi Psis the due process to point out all the inaccuracies that made the article suspect. [155], In the Columbia Journalism Review, Bill Grueskin called the story "a messthinly sourced, full of erroneous assumptions, and plagued by gaping holes in the reporting". [124], After the Charlottesville Police concluded that there was no evidence of a crime having occurred at Phi Kappa Psi during their press conference on March 23, 2015, Stephen Scipione, the president of Phi Kappa Psi's UVA chapter, announced that his fraternity is "exploring its legal options to address the extensive damage caused by Rolling Stone". "[18], In Erdely's story, Jackie disclosed to friends Cindy, Andy, and Randall the identity of her date to the fraternity party and said that he was the ringleader of the rape. The accuser told the Post that she had felt "manipulated" by Erdely, and claimed she asked Erdely not to quote her in the article, a request the journalist denied. No one supplied evidence to corroborate Jackie's accusations of a gang rape happening or that the accused rapist, supposedly named "Drew" or "Haven Monahan", even existed. [39], The two friends confirmed to the Post that they remembered meeting Jackie on the night of the incident, that she was distraught but not visibly injured or bloodied, and that details she provided then were different from those in the Rolling Stone article. Father of girl at center of UVA 'gang rape' storm defends her saying Jackie Coakley: Accuser At Center Of False 'Rolling Stone' Rape Story Disgraced former Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Erdely admitted in the company's defamation trial that she failed to speak to critical figures in her story about a gang rape at the University of Virginia (UVA), who could have exposed key source Jackie Coakley as a fantastic liar, according to reports. [46] They came to the conclusion that they were comfortable" with not making it clear to readers that they had never contacted Ryan. [96][97] Emily Renda, who was a University of Virginia student at the time of the alleged attack and in whom Jackie also confided, said that she had become suspicious as to the veracity of Jackie's story prior to the Rolling Stone report, commenting to a The Washington Post editor: "I don't even know what I believe. "[116] "[35], Fraternity officials, who rejected the published allegations, noted a number of discrepancies in the story: there was no party held on the night that Jackie was allegedly raped, no fraternity member matched the description in the story of the "ringleader" of the rape, and details about the layout of the fraternity house provided by the accuser were wrong. [154] According to Miltenberg, he specializes in "defamation and complex internet and First Amendment issues". [citation needed]. "[62], Rolling Stone's lawyer told jurors in a 2016 trial that Rolling Stone was victim of a "hoax" and a "fraud", and added with regard to Jackie: "the magazine's editorial staff was no match for Jackie 'she deceived us, and we do know it was purposeful'. And no one, from a university president on down, or on up, gets the notion that due process for the accused is actually a core principle of our justice system, to be applied before punishment is meted out.So where is good old Jackie Coakley these days?Well, she is married and is now "Jackie McGovern", living her life, la-la-la, scot-free despite being the central figure in a mammoth fraud that has cost people their jobs, institutions their reputations, and a magazine a spitload of money.And nobody nobody appears willing to take her to task, either in a civil suit (Rolling Stone might want to think about that) or in a criminal case, given that she perpetrated a massive fraud with some pretty serious consequences and material damages.Why not?I have no assumption to make, as to whether she has not been sued because she is a shallow pocket, incapable of affording a large settlement in a civil suit. I have argued in these pages that the FBI needs to go hard against the Clinton Foundation for just that reason, lest the next powerful person or couple use a phony-baloney charitable entity to disguise an influence-peddling scam. [25], UVA's student newspaper The Cavalier Daily described mixed reactions from the student body, stating: "For some, the piece is an unfounded attack on our school; for others, it is a recognition of a harsh reality; and for what I suspect is a large majority of us, it falls somewhere in between. Said the filing: "Rolling Stone and Erdely's highly defamatory and false statements about Dean Eramo were not the result of an innocent mistake. They went on to call for Rolling Stone to "fully and unconditionally retract its story and immediately remove the story from its website". [32][33] Erdely defended her decision not to interview the accused by saying that the contact page on the fraternity's website "was pretty outdated". and that there was no party at all at the Phi Psi house on the night Miss Coakley claimed to have been assaulted at, she claimed, a party. 1) That's what "Haven Monahan" would've gotten if he had raped her and he was real. "[136][137][138], The Rolling Stone article had a negative effect on applications to the University of Virginia. 'Not An Employee': Hospital Blows Holes In Rolling Stone Story [163] On November 7, 2016, the jury decided that Rolling Stone and Erdely were liable for $3 million in damages to Eramo. "[121], Rolling Stone announced that Will Dana would leave his job at the magazine, effective August 7, 2015. Virginia sorority members called the restrictions "unnecessary and patronizing". [30][31] After an interview Erdely gave to Slate, in which she was questioned about the way she investigated the piece, some commentators escalated their questioning of the veracity of the article. Where are the Feds? You all know where she is. And I think the level of devastation that this Rolling Stone report that's now looking to go from a misremembered event to perhaps an actual hoax." But as Smerconish wrote, "[S]he did not talk to all of Jackie's friends. However, The Washington Post stated that the three friends reported getting called at 1 a.m.[46] and meeting Jackie a mile away from the fraternities, and that they saw "no blood or visible injuries". [28], The Interfraternity Council (IFC) at UVA released a statement on its website in response to the article that said: "an IFC officer was interviewed by Rolling Stone regarding the culture of sexual violence at the University. I'm starting to expect more and more people are just simply lying about this stuff now. Besides faulting the magazine and the reporter for publishing the article without doing due diligence, Eramo's attorneys assert in that the UVA student at the center of the piece a woman named Jackie Coakley is a "serial liar" who fabricated the assault in order to gain the attention of a . [166][167] In September 2016, the magazine sought to have the lawsuit dismissed; however, a circuit court judge ruled that the suit could proceed. She said her initial reaction was surprise and "a certain air of disbelief" because during her 44-minute interview for the story, Erdely never brought up Jackie or asked about any of the allegations made in the article. [8][9], On January 12, 2015, Charlottesville Police officials told UVA that an investigation had failed to find any evidence confirming the events in the Rolling Stone article. [139], National sorority leaders ordered UVA sororities to not interact with fraternities during Boys Bid Night when fraternities admit new pledges. There is certainly a good argument to make that it is often necessary to prosecute as a deterrent to the next person willing to try the same felonious act. [168] On June 13, 2017, the lawsuit was settled for $1.65 million. It features a fictional character named Heather Manning who was based on Jackie. A former student who graduated in 2013 said "the day [the article] came out was the most emotionally grueling of my life. We must, apparently, not give out the names of accusers even after they have been shown to be liars. According to Goldberg, "It is an account of a sober, well-planned gang rape by seven fraternity pledges at the direction of two members. ", "University urged to end Greek groups' suspension", "UVA Issues Statement Regarding Fraternal Suspension", "Police clear U-Va. fraternity, say rape did not happen there", "The Washington Post Inches Closer to Calling the UVA Gang Rape Story a Fabrication", "Report: Rolling Stone rape article 'journalistic failure', "Updated: Jurors Hear From 'Jackie's' Friends in Rolling Stone Trial", "New Questions Raised About Rolling Stone's UVA Rape Story", "What Happened to Jackie? A Rape Hoax for Book Lovers - Taki's Magazine [34] The Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple rejected Erdely's statement, saying that the severity of the accusations she was reporting required "every possible step to reach out and interview them, including e-mails, phone calls, certified letters, FedEx letters, UPS letters and, if all of that fails, a knock on the door. It's been over a year since Rolling Stone's big story on an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia was exposed as a hoax, but the public has long lacked specific details about how UVA student Jackie Coakley concocted her wildly false story. All of this, we might point out, happened only because a petulant, amoral female student wanted attention, and because the climate against sexual assault has risen to where the assumption is of guilt rather than innocence. It was Nov. 19, 2014, when the world first learned about Jackie, a young woman who claimed in the pages of Rolling Stone that she had been gang-raped as part of a fraternity initiation. [10] The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism audited the editorial processes that culminated in the article being published. Jackie's penchant for crying wolf is also evident. "[63], Erdely publicly apologized for the article on April 5, 2015,[64] though her apology did not include any mention of the fraternity, or the members of the fraternity who were accused. At the end of the day, UVA's incredible story fit Erdely's narrative better than Vanderbilt's credible one. "[79], On December 6, The Washington Post's media critic Erik Wemple called for all Rolling Stone staff who were involved with the story to be fired. Prior to the date, they attempted to locate him in a student directory and were unable to find evidence that he existed. "[84], After two Vanderbilt University football players were convicted of rape on January 27, 2015, Richard Bradley, who was the first mainstream journalist to question the Rolling Stone story, wrote a blogpost titled "Why Didn't Sabrina Rubin Erdely Write about Vanderbilt?" In the post, he asked: "Is Vanderbilt just not as sexy a story as UVA? I believed it to be true at the time. Jackie was born in Milwaukee, Wis., but spent most of. Sponsorship and interview inquiries cheerfully welcomed at bsutton@alum.mit.edu. A return to sanity is called for before more wreckage occurs. Writing in Slate, Hannah Rosin described the new The Washington Post investigation as close "to calling the UVA gang rape story a fabrication". It was prepared by Steve Coll, the dean of Columbia's journalism school; Sheila Coronel, the dean of academic affairs; and Derek Kravitz, a graduate school researcher. The woman, called "Jackie" in the article, cited PTSD as the cause for not remembering details of her assault, which was described as a gang rape in the article by Sabrina Erdely. After leaving the party around 3 a.m., allegedly with bruises and blood stained clothes, Jackie called her three best friends, "Andy", "Randall" and "Cindy", for support. Jackie requested that her assailants not be contacted, and Rolling Stone agreed. Fraternity Files $25 Million Lawsuit Against Rolling Stone", "Lawsuits Against Rolling Stone Move Forward Despite Objection", Fraternity chapter at U-Va. to settle suit against Rolling Stone for $1.65 million, "Lawsuit over debunked Rolling Stone rape article revived on appeal", "Street Artist Sabo Blasts Lena Dunham, Bill Clinton in Fake Rolling Stone Covers", "RETRACTION by David Gutierrez Opens On Theatre Row", "A lawyer takes to the stage to state his case", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Rape_on_Campus&oldid=1152555607, An alleged gang rape at a college fraternity, This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 23:20. The report indicated the college students suffered disgust, emotion, and confusion. In addition, several windows were broken with bottles and cinder blocks, and police officials said that the group received "disparaging messages" on social media. Some students "actually had to leave the room while they were reading [the article] because they were so upset." In the Columbia Journalism Review, Bill Grueskin called the story "a messthinly sourced, full of erroneous assumptions, and plagued by gaping holes in the reporting". Jackie told the magazine she was raped by seven men in a frat-house after being taken there by her date Magazine said she identified them as Phi Kappa Psi but she then told the Washington Post.