Rolling Stone Trial: UVA Jackie Invented Rumor Her Friend Had Syphilis

Article here. Excerpt:

'She even revealed additional falsehoods by Coakley, such as an invented rumor that a friend of hers had contracted syphilis, reports The Daily Progress. Erdely was the author of the November 2014 article “A Rape on Campus,” which recounted Coakley’s claim that she was savagely gang-raped by seven men at a UVA fraternity during a party. The article sparked a massive wave of outrage, but was quickly retracted after Coakley’s account was exposed as a series of spectacular lies. Now, Rolling Stone is battling a $7.5 million lawsuit by UVA dean Nicole Eramo, who says the magazine defamed her by portraying her as callously indifferent to UVA students who claimed they were raped.
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That wasn’t the only strange syphilis-related revelation. Erdely testified that she was told by Coakley prior to the article’s publication that Coakley acquired syphilis from her gang rape. Yet, Coakley never supplied any medical documents to back up the claim, and instead repeatedly concocted new excuses for why she couldn’t show them. Rather than take this as an indication Coakley was being less than honest with her, Erdely simply deleted the syphilis claim from the story.'