Police in Charlottesville, Virginia announced Monday that they have found no evidence to substantiate the gang rape allegations made by a student identified as “Jackie” in a controversial November 2014 Rolling Stone story by Sabrina Rubin Erdely. From the Washington Post:
Police Chief Timothy J. Longo on Monday afternoon said the police department had multiple meetings with “Jackie” — the woman who claimed she was gang raped at a September 2012 fraternity party — and that she declined to speak about the alleged incident or provide any information about it. Numerous lines of inquiry yielded evidence that the fraternity did not have a party the night of the alleged attack, and police were unable to find anyone matching the description of the alleged attacker.
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“We’re not able to conclude to any substantive degree that an incident occurred at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house or any other fraternity house, for that matter,” Longo said at a news conference. “That doesn’t mean something terrible didn’t happen to Jackie … we’re just not able to gather sufficient facts to determine what that is.”
Rolling Stone admitted in December that it had not properly factchecked Erdely’s piece and commissioned Columbia University to conduct an outside review of the piece’s claims. The results of Columbia’s investigation are expected to be published in early April.
