JUSTICE – AT 9:21 A.M. ET:  Sexual violence against women should be taken very seriously, and usually is.  Sadly, though, some have misused the issue for personal advancement, publicity, or journalistic fame.  When that happens, the justice system must be put to work to right the wrong or remove the false charge.  A falsely accused fraternity at the University of Virginia has now received at least some justice.  From Daily Caller: 

Rolling Stone has settled a lawsuit with the University of Virginia fraternity whose members were falsely accused of raping a female student in a Nov. 2014 article, The Daily Caller has learned.

A source involved at the national level with the fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, tells TheDC that Rolling Stone will pay $1.65 million to settle the defamation suit.

The magazine’s decision follows a settlement in April with Nicole Eramo, a University of Virginia associate dean who was also smeared in the article, which was written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely.

In the piece, “A Rape on Campus,” Erdely relayed the story of Jackie Coakley, a Virginia woman who claimed she was brutally raped by a group of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity members during a party in Sept. 2012.

Erdely portrayed Eramo as dismissive of Coakley’s case. But it was later revealed that Coakley not only fabricated the attack by the fraternity members but that Eramo took her allegations seriously at the time she made them.

A jury in Virginia awarded Eramo $3 million in damages — $2 million from Erdely and $1 million from Rolling Stone.

COMMENT:  There are few things quite as ugly as a false charge.  The Ninth Commandment reads,
"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."  How many young people know that today?

June 13, 2017