Brothers of Slandered UVa Fraternity Phi Kappa Psi Talk About Their Pain and Damages

Some see a WaPo article; I see a legal brief on damages suffered for a coming lawsuit against Rolling Stone, Sabrina Erdely, and UVa itself.

CHARLOTTESVILLE — The Phi Kappa Psi brothers sat together in a bedroom, turning the glossy magazine pages as they absorbed the account of a gang-rape that allegedly took place within the brick walls around them.

The University of Virginia students read the Rolling Stone article that November night in utter shock [+$100,000]. A U-Va. junior said she attended a date party at the fraternity house in 2012 and was lured to a bedroom, where a group of men raped her in what appeared to be a gruesome initiation rite. The students were disgusted, emotional, confused. [+$200,000 per plaintiff]

"Some people actually had to leave the room while they were reading it because they were so upset," [+$100,000 per plaintiff] said Phi Psi president Stephen Scipione, 21, a junior from Richmond.

...

Phi Psi members, speaking publicly for the first time since the allegations surfaced, told The Washington Post they went into hiding for weeks [+$500,000] after their home was vandalized [+$250,000 plus costs] with spray paint calling them rapists and bricks that broke their windows. They booked hotel rooms [+$1000 per night] to avoid the scrum of protestors who marched on their front lawn. They watched as their brotherhood was vilified [+$400,000], coming to symbolize the worst episode of collegiate sexual violence against women since the 2006 Duke University lacrosse team scandal -- which also turned out to be false.

Scipione said members of Phi Psi first learned about the general allegations in mid-September, when an executive from the fraternity’s national office called an emergency meeting. There, a Phi Psi official outlined what a university official had relayed about the alleged sexual assault.

"He basically asked if, one, we knew about them and, two, if we had committed it," said Scipione. “The look around the table was complete shock [+$350,000] and awe [+$650,000].”

There are more damages in the actual article.

posted by Ace at 12:55 PM

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