December 5, 2014

Updated: U. of Viginia Suspends Fraternities, After Allegations That Seven Men Raped a Woman; New Revelations


Posted November 25, 2014 8:54 PM ET; Last updated December 5, 2014 9:37 PM ET


No more rape: People gather with signs during a protest at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at the University of Virginia on Saturday.
 
According to these new reports the woman never called local police. They never investigated the allegation of rape. The standard demanded by the U.S. Department of Education for campus rape was employed by this magazine. Accepting the accuser's words with no opportunity for the accused to defend himself (themselves). Isn't that what happened to a New York man who was never given notice of any accusation but was punished by crime families, Communists and police for an allegation  for 40 years? One more example of misguided standards promoted by the Obama-Holder Doctrine, which permits selected persons to ignore inconvenient laws. This is what happens when university administrators and the Department of Education bureaucrats impersonate police and judges. Expect many more misguided actions like this on campuses.

[From article]
Because of the sensitive nature of Jackie's story, we decided to honor her request not to contact the man she claimed orchestrated the attack on her nor any of the men she claimed participated in the attack for fear of retaliation against her.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/a-note-to-our-readers-20141205

A Note to Our Readers
BY ROLLING STONE
December 5, 2014
Will Dana Managing editor
To Our Readers:

* * *

[From article]

"We were trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault and now regret the decision to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account," the post said. "We are taking this seriously and apologize to anyone who was affected by the story."
On Nov. 19, the magazine ran a story of "Jackie," an unidentified UVA. student who says she was gang-raped at a party at the house of Phi Kappa Psi in the fall of 2012. Her shocking story with vivid details from the night of the incident and its charges that sexual assaults at U.Va. often go unreported deeply embarrassed the university and launched an investigation by school officials and local police. All Greek life activities were also suspended in the wake of the story.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/12/05/rolling-stone-retracts-uva-story/19954293/

Rolling Stone backs off from U.Va. rape story
 Roger Yu,
USA TODAY
3:39 p.m. EST December 5, 2014

* * *

[From article]
A group of Jackie’s close friends, who are sex assault awareness advocates at U-Va., said they believe something traumatic happened to her, but they also have come to doubt her account. They said details have changed over time, and they have not been able to verify key points of the story in recent days. A name of an alleged attacker that Jackie provided to them for the first time this week, for example, turned out to be similar to the name of a student who belongs to a different fraternity, and no one by that name has been a member of Phi Kappa Psi.
[. . .]
The fraternity — which has been vilified, had its house vandalized and ultimately suspended all of its activities on campus after the Rolling Stone article — said in its statement Friday that it had immediate concerns about the story and has been working to figure out what happened.
[. . . ]
“The University remains first and foremost concerned with the care and support of our students and, especially, any survivor of sexual assault,” Sullivan said in a statement. “Our students, their safety, and their well-being, remain our top priority.”
[. . .]
Helen Dragas, a member of the university’s governing Board of Visitors, said Friday that U-Va. needs to continue its focus on preventing sexual assault.
“Despite doubts that have been cast on the Rolling Stone story, we need to keep our eyes on the prize, which is nothing less than zero tolerance for rape,” Dragas said. “There will be time enough to look back and ask hard questions of our administrators about how rapes have gone unreported and unanswered, and I have no doubt our Board of Visitors will do just that. But for now our primary concern must be for the well-being of our students. We need to get this right for them, and do so with no hesitation or concern for image.”
[. . .]
Speaking for the first time since the details of her alleged sexual assault were published in Rolling Stone, the 20-year-old U-Va. junior told The Post that she stands by her version of the events. [. . .] She had gone on a date with a member of the house, went to a party there and ended up in a room where she was brutally attacked — seven men raping her in succession with two others watching — leaving her bloody, permanently injured and emotionally devastated.
“I never asked for this” attention, she said in an interview. “What bothers me is that so many people act like it didn’t happen. It’s my life. I have had to live with the fact that it happened every day for the last two years.”
[. . .]
The article spawned protests and vandalism, and the university quickly suspended all Greek system activities until the beginning of next semester and put out a call for zero tolerance of sex assault.
[. . .]
Renda said research shows that between 2 and 8 percent of all rape allegations are fabricated or unfounded.
[. . .]
Jackie said that her date appeared to have orchestrated the sexual assault by attempting to ply her with alcohol before escorting her into a darkened room on the second floor of the fraternity house. Jackie said she did not actually drink alcohol that night because she was on a migraine medication. She said she remembered the events that night clearly.
[. . .]
Jackie said numerous times that she did not expect that an investigation the Charlottesville Police Department opened after the article’s publication would result in any charges. She said she knew there was little if any forensic evidence that could prove the allegations two years after they occurred.
“I didn’t want a trial,” Jackie said. “I can’t imagine getting up on a defense stand having them tear me apart.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/u-va-fraternity-to-rebut-claims-of-gang-rape-in-rolling-stone/2014/12/05/5fa5f7d2-7c91-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html

Key elements of Rolling Stone’s U-Va. gang rape allegations in doubt
By T. Rees Shapiro
December 5 at 5:35 PM

* * *

[From article]
A University of Virginia board on Tuesday honed in on alcohol as a contributing factor in sexual assaults on campus, with one member calling for more aggressively enforcing the law banning underage drinking.
Members of the Board of Visitors discussed sexual assault allegations that came out in a devastating portrait in Rolling Stone that has rocked the campus. The article described a woman's account of a gang rape, and went into detail about what it called a hidden culture of sexual violence at the school.
Board member Bobbie Kilberg said the school needed to stop underage drinking, a tall order on nearly any college campus, where drinking is a rite of passage and students under age 21 have no trouble getting alcohol.
Her suggestion was met with some resistance from student leaders. Tommy Reid, president of the school's Inter-Fraternity Council, said such a ban could push drinking "underground."
[. . .]
Several protesters held signs, including one that had a picture of Thomas Jefferson, the school founder, with the words, "''SEXUAL MISCONDUCT: A JEFFERSONIAN TRADITION."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/uva-board-discuss-sex-assault-allegations-27158679

U.Va. Looks at Alcohol as Factor in Sex Assaults
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.
Nov 25, 2014, 4:59 PM ET
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER
Associated Press


* * *
 
[From article]
The University of Virginia on Saturday suspended activities at all campus fraternal organizations amid an investigation into a published report in which a student described being sexually assaulted by seven men at a fraternity in 2012.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2845826/University-Virginia-Suspends-fraternal-activities-amid-investigation-student-s-claim-raped-seven-fraternity-brothers-2012.html

University of Virginia suspends all fraternal activities amid investigation of student's claim she was raped by seven fraternity brothers
The University of Virginia on Saturday suspended activities at all campus fraternal organizations amid a rape investigation
'In the words of one student who wrote to me this week, `Policy is needed, but people make change,' University President Teresa Sullivan said
She also has asked Charlottesville police to investigate the alleged rape at the Phi Kappa Psi house in 2012
By Associated Press
Daily Mail (UK)
Published: 19:40 EST, 22 November 2014 | Updated: 13:02 EST, 23 November 2014

* * *


Forced to resign: Former federal prosecutor Mark Filip stepped down hours after he was appointed to oversee a review into alleged gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity of which he is an alumnus.


[From article]
A former federal prosecutor has been forced to resign as chair of an investigation into rape allegations at the University of Virginia after it emerged he was a member of the accused fraternity.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2845880/Prosecutor-appointed-investigate-gang-rape-seven-men-University-Virginia-fraternity-forced-resign-HOURS-later-emerged-member-brotherhood.html

Farce as prosecutor appointed to investigate 'UVA frat gang rape' is forced to resign HOURS later because he was a member of same brotherhood
Former federal prosecutor Mark Filip was appointed on Thursday night
Role withdrawn on Friday because he is a Phi Kappa Psi alumnus
A current junior, identified as 'Jackie' in Rolling Stone article, says she was raped by a group of Phi Kappa Psi men at the house in September 2012
Jackie told a dean about the gang rape, but says the school never opened an investigation until threatened with a damaging article this week
She also says that two other women have told her of similar experiences at the fraternity, where President Woodrow Wilson was a brother
University of Virginia President Teresa A Sullivan issued a statement on Wednesday saying a fraternity in now under investigation by local police
The fraternity's house was graffitied early Thursday morning with the words 'Suspend us!' and 'UVA Center for RAPE Studies'
By Mia De Graaf and Ashley Collman for MailOnline
Published: 22:35 EST, 22 November 2014 | Updated: 22:39 EST, 22 November 2014

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