Presumably, the federal government has access to records at the University of Virginia that the Charlottesville Police Department decided that the police would rather not read.
Rather than arrest and prosecute the perpetrators, the federal government seems to have decided to help the University of Virginia scapegoat Ms. Eramo and to let Phi Kappa Psi's $25 million lawsuit play out in court.
Why was Drew an undergraduate and a fraternity member at the University of Virginia in 2006 and then a junior at the University of Virginia in 2012? Who are "Armpit" and "Blanket"?
I would be surprised if the federal government doesn't know the answers to those questions, and to many other questions that are relevant to what happened to Jackie.
I would not be surprised if the perpetrators, and particularly Drew, are the sons of powerful people.
Also, since the federal government has promoted rape since 2010, the federal government probably would rather that Phi Kappa Psi win the lawsuit that is scheduled for October of 2017, so that rape victims and those who would try to help them around the world are terrified into silence for the indefinite future.
Since the federal government seems to have decided not to disclose information that would prove that Jackie was raped, and since I think that Clare Locke will appeal a negative verdict, if I were Rolling Stone, I would try to settle the lawsuit with Ms. Erdely in such a way as to give as little subsequent ammunition as possible to Phi Kappa Psi. Is it possible for both sides to agree that, since the University of Virginia did not allow Ms. Eramo to speak with Rolling Stone before the article was published, it was not malicious but it was also not necessary for Rolling Stone to print her name or picture? That would bypass everything else about the article.
I would try to settle the lawsuit for $2.5 million. Ms. Eramo has suffered, and it seems to me that Ms. Erdely ought to be able to spend at least some of the next 12 months writing rather than dealing with lawsuits.
Copyright L. Kochman, October 23, 2016 @ 8:23 p.m.