Dean Eramo awarded $3 million in damages in Rolling Stone case
She originally sued for $7.5m
Dean Nicole Eramo has been awarded $3,000,000 damages in her defamation suit against Rolling Stone.
Rolling Stone’s article “A Rape on Campus” was retracted and Dean Eramo was given $3m of compensation after it was found that Rolling Stone had defamed the UVA administrator.
A jury heard how the characterization in the now-discredited piece left the administrator depressed. She told the court how one day after the article’s publication, she crawled under her desk and contemplated suicide. Her husband testified that she told him: “I don’t know that I can live anymore.”
Though Eramo initially asked for $7.5 million, she was awarded $2 million from Sabrina Erdely and $1 million from Rolling Stone. The magazine is footing the bill for both Erdely’s legal costs and the damages awarded on her behalf.
During the trial, the attorneys for Rolling Stone argued although they should not have trusted their source, “Jackie,” the way they portrayed UVA and the fraternity was fair.
Rolling Stone could appeal the verdict against them.