Fraternity brothers sue Rolling Stone as top editor resigns

By Ashe Schow, Ashe Schow

Published December 20, 2015

Three members of the fraternity accused in a now-retracted Rolling Stone article of facilitating a brutal gang rape are suing the magazine, its publisher and the author.

George Elias IV, Ross Fowler and Stephen Hadford allege in their lawsuit that they were easily identified as members of Phi Kappa Psi who could have participated in the gang-rape, which was proved false shortly after the article was published. The three men have since graduated but allege in their lawsuit that they were subjected to harassment following the article's publication.

Elias' bedroom was at the top of the first flight of stairs in the fraternity house, and was "the mostly likely scene of the alleged crime," the former students say. Elias says in the lawsuit that after "family friends, acquaintances, co-workers and reporters" identified him as one of the potential attackers, they "interrogated him, humiliated him, and scolded him." Fowler and Hadford say they "suffered similar attacks."

The lawsuit alleges that the students' names and hometowns were listed online by anonymous Internet commenters, ensuring their "names will forever be associated with the alleged gang rape."