Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely admitted Thursday that the magazine never sought to verify whether the ringleader described in its explosive article “A Rape on Campus” was a real person.



Erdely returned to the stand to answer questions before a jury from Libby Locke, the lawyer representing the University of Virginia administrator Nicole Eramo, who is suing the reporter and Rolling Stone for defamation over her portrayal in the November 2014 story. The story focused on the alleged sexual assault of a woman named Jackie, though subsequent media reports and a police investigation debunked many of the claims made in Rolling Stone's pages.

Locke's questions Thursday morning focused on Erdely's interactions with Jackie, and whether or not the reporter spoke with Jay, the man Jackie accused of orchestrating the reported gang rape. Emails, text messages, and reporting notes showed that Erdely repeatedly pressed Jackie for Jay’s last name and explained that she would have to contact him for comment. However, Erdely eventually agreed not to contact Jay, to keep Jackie involved in the article.

Erdely also testified that she heard different versions of Jackie’s story throughout her reporting but did not think this was an issue. "Yes, the details had changed over time as she came to terms with her rape," Erdely said on the stand, but she did not press Jackie about those inconsistencies. “It had never concerned me that these details were inconsistent because this is the way trauma victims behave."

Locke further probed into whether Erdely spoke with, or knew the names of, the three pseudonymous friends she described as having callous responses to Jackie's alleged attack. Those three friends became instrumental in subsequent reporting by the Washington Post and others that discredited the Rolling Stone article.

Erdley testified that after the article published, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner instructed her to detail how she failed in the reporting process. Erdely wrote the "mea culpa," as Locke called it, in December 2014, but it was never published. Erdely spoke with those three friends who Jackie said would not speak with her — Ryan Duffin, Alex Stock, and Kathryn Hendley. Hendley informed Erdely that she no longer spoke to Jackie because Jackie had started a rumor that Hendley contracted syphilis. Erdely began to sob as she conceded this point.

In this "mea culpa," Erdely wrote that she wondered why she had hung the account of this alleged gang rape on someone as emotionally unstable as Jackie. The judge interjected at this point and pressed Erdely to answer whether she still felt that way.

"It wasn't a mistake to rely on someone who was so emotionally fragile," Erdely responded, choking back tears again. "It was a mistake to rely on someone whose intent was to deceive me."