U-Va. students challenge Rolling Stone account of alleged sexual assault

It was 1 a.m. on a Saturday when the call came. A friend, a University of Virginia freshman who earlier said she had a date that evening with a handsome junior from her chemistry class, was in hysterics. Something bad had happened.

Arriving at her side, three students Randall, Andy and Cindy, as they were identified in an explosive Rolling Stone account told The Washington Post that they found their friend in tears. Jackie appeared traumatized, saying her date ended horrifically, with the older student parking his car at his fraternity, asking her to come inside and then forcing her to perform oral sex on five men.

In their first interviews about the events of that September 2012 night, the three friends separately told The Post that their recollections of the encounter diverge from how Rolling Stone portrayed the incident in a story about Jackies alleged gang rape at a U-Va. fraternity. The interviews also provide a richer account of Jackies interactions immediately after the alleged attack and suggest that the friends are skeptical of her account.

The scene with her friends was pivotal in the article, as it alleged that the friends were callously apathetic about a beaten, bloodied, injured classmate reporting a brutal gang rape at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. The account alleged that the students worried about the effect it might have on their social status and how it might reflect on Jackie during the rest of her collegiate career and that they suggested not reporting it. It set up the articles theme: That U-Va. has a culture that is indifferent to rape.

It didnt happen that way at all, Andy said.

Students held a candlelight vigil to raise awareness on sexual assault Friday night as Rolling Stone cited discrepancies in an article that reported a gang rape in a campus fraternity. (Reuters)

Instead, the friends remember being shocked. Although they did not notice any blood or visible injuries, they said they immediately urged Jackie to speak to police and insisted that they find her help. Instead, they said, Jackie declined and asked to be taken back to her dorm room. They went with her two said they spent the night seeking to comfort Jackie in what appeared to be a moment of extreme turmoil.

I mean, obviously, we were very concerned for her, Andy said. We tried to be as supportive as we could be.

The three students agreed to be interviewed on the condition that The Post use the same aliases that appeared in Rolling Stone because of the sensitivity of the subject.

They said there are mounting inconsistencies with the original narrative in the magazine. The students also expressed suspicions about Jackies allegations from that night. They said the name she provided as that of her date did not match anyone at the university, and U-Va. officials confirmed to The Post that no one by that name has attended the school.

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U-Va. students challenge Rolling Stone account of alleged sexual assault