UVA Rape Report: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house is seen on the University of Virginia campus on December 6, 2014 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Getty)

The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house is seen on the University of Virginia campus on December 6, 2014 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Getty)

Charlottesville Police released a report Monday about the investigation into the alleged rape of an University of Virginia student at a fraternity party that was documented in a discredited Rolling Stone article “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA.”

The investigation found several inconsistencies with what was reported in the Rolling Stone article and no evidence that the brutal gang rape occurred at a fraternity house in 2012 as was claimed in the story, which was published in November 2014.

The story gained national attention, but reports by the Washington Post and other media outlets discredited some of the claims made in the story, leading to an apology from Rolling Stone. Police began the five-month investigation into the allegations made in the story in November.

Here’s what you need to know:


1. The Alleged Victim ‘Jackie’ Didn’t Speak to Police

According to police, the alleged 18-year-old rape victim, identified by Rolling Stone as “Jackie,” refused to give a statement to investigators.

Police did speak to friends of Jackie and other students. Police said they spoke to about 70 people during the investigation. Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely cooperated with them to the best extent she could, while protecting her sources, police said.

According to Police Chief Timothy Longo, after the article was published, Jackie met with a detective, in December, with legal counsel, and through her lawyer, refused to give a statement or answer any questions. Records relevant to the investigation also weren’t given to investigators, Longo said.

Longo said when the sexual assault allegation was first made to a university dean, Jackie later met with police, but did not want to pursue a criminal investigation. The university asked police to investigate the allegations after the Rolling Stone article was published.

A detective said that on Dec. 10, 2014, investigators had their last contact with Jackie and they were “very distinctly and succinctly told she would not talk to us, would not file a report, that she didn’t want an investigation and we were not to talk to her again.”

Police said Jackie will not face charges as a result of the allegations. After the story was published and questions about its credibility arose, Jackie told the Washington Post she was manipulated by Erdely and asked to be taken out of the story.

The fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, did participate in the investigation. It has been cleared of wrongdoing by the university.

Longo said investigators didn’t find any evidence of a September 2012 sexual assault the student alleged happened at a frat house on campus during a party.

Police also found inconsistencies in her report of a 2014 physical attack by four men that happened on campus. Jackie told police she was struck in the head with a bottle during the attack and that her roommate had to pick glass out of her head. But her roommate denied doing that. Her roommate and police who investigated that incident said it appeared Jackie had suffered from an abrasion, not blunt-force trauma. Jackie also told police she made a phone call to her mother, but police said phone records indicate she never made that call.


2. There Was No Frat Party the Night of the Alleged Sexual Assault, Police Say

The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house is seen on the University of Virginia campus on December 6, 2014 in Charlottesville, Virginia.  (Getty)

The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house is seen on the University of Virginia campus on December 6, 2014 in Charlottesville, Virginia. (Getty)

The Rolling Stone article claimed that the sexual assault happened at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house on Sept. 28 2012, but police said their investigation found that there was no party scheduled for that night.

“We checked the social calendar and there was no information pertaining to such a party on the social calendar,” Longo said. “In addition to the fact that we did find that their sister sorority, Delta Gamma, did in fact have a formal on that particular evening. The thought was they would not likely have had two events as not to cannibalize each others guests lists. We weren’t able to support that a party was taking place at Phi Kappa Psi.”

A witness gave police a photo time-stamped at about 11:30 that night depicting the entrance corridor and main room of the fraternity house, to the left, of the stairwell and entrance door, and there is only one male in the photo, “inconsistent with the large group described in the Rolling Stone article.”


3. Police Were Not Able to Find the Alleged Attacker

Students walk through the University of Virginia campus on December 6, 2014 in Charlottesville, Virginia. On Friday, Rolling Stone magazine issued an apology for discrepancies that were published in an article regarding the alleged gang rape of a University of Virginia student by members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. (Getty)

Students walk through the University of Virginia campus on December 6, 2014 in Charlottesville, Virginia. On Friday, Rolling Stone magazine issued an apology for discrepencies that were published in an article regarding the alleged gang rape of a University of Virginia student by members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. (Getty)

According to police, investigators were not able to find any student on campus matching the description given by Jackie of the alleged attacker.

Police talked to two friends of Jackie, who said they were aware she was going on a date with a student named Haven Monahan (called “Drew” in the Rolling Stone article) on Sept. 28, the night of the alleged rape. They said they had never met Monahan, and had exchanged text messages with someone they thought was Monahan. Jackie said she was going to a restaurant for dinner and then to a fraternity party. Police said the restaurant where the date supposedly happened doesn’t retain reservation lists.

“We’ve made numerous attempts to identify who Haven Monahan is, to the extent that Haven Monahan even exists,” Longo said. “Using that telephone number they believe they were texting back and forth to, we searched numerous internet sites, the telephone number came back to a Google number, I recall.”

Longo said investigators interviewed members of the aquatic center pool staff, where Jackie said she worked with Haven Monahan, but no one there was familiar with a Haven Monahan.

The chief said another name, which he didn’t specify, of a student who worked at the aquatic center and belonged to a fraternity, surfaced during the investigation. Longo said that student met with investigators, gave statements, financial records, work schedules and there was never any overlap found with Jackie’s shift at the pool.

Investigators also talked to members of that student’s fraternity, and they gave no recollection of a party, sexual assault or of Jackie herself. Their house is also laid out differently than what was described in the article, Longo said.


4. Police Say the Investigation Didn’t Prove That ‘Something Terrible’ Didn’t Happen to ‘Jackie’

Longo said they were not able to find sufficient evidence to support the claims made in the article.

That doesn’t mean that something terrible did not happen to Jackie on the evening of September 28th 2012, we are just not able to gather the sufficient facts to conclude what that something may have been. So this case is not closed, it’s not closed by any stretch of the imagination, it’s suspended until such time as we are able to gather more information, or until such time that someone comes forward and provides us with more information.

When pressed by a reporter as to why they weren’t closing the case if no evidence was found, along with the credibility issues of the alleged victim and her reluctance to press charges, Longo repeated that he can’t prove that something didn’t happen, and said “it’s a disservice to Jackie, I think it’s a disservice to frankly the university to simply close this case without at least allowing an opportunity so that if additional information came forward we would be able to further investigate it.”

He said there is no statute of limitations in a case such as this.

Longo said investigators also weren’t able to find any evidence of two other sexual assaults Jackie talked about in conversations with a UVa dean, involving other victims, which she said occurred at the same fraternity house in 2010 and 2014.

“No one has come forward making such allegations, no witnesses, no victims,” Longo said. “But we’re asking if anyone has information related to a sexual assault that occurred in 2010 at the fraternity house or in 2014 at that fraternity house or any other fraternity house that they please cooperate with police and bring that to our attention.

Longo also stressed that it is “extremely, extremely important,” to have police involved in sexual assault investigation from the beginning.

“With every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year, we lose evidence,” Longo said. “We lose testimonial evidence, we lose physical evidence, we lose forensic evidence. We lose the evidence that’s important to get to the truth of these cases so that justice can prevail.”


5. Rolling Stone Has Commissioned an Independent Panel to Investigate Its Reporting

Lights illuminate a building of University of Virginia School of Medicine on March 19, 2015 in Charlottsville, Virginia.  (Getty)

Lights illuminate a building of University of Virginia School of Medicine on March 19, 2015 in Charlottsville, Virginia. (Getty)

Rolling Stone has acknowledged flaws in the reporting of the story and has commissioned a team of investigators, led by Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism Dean Steve Coll. The external report is expected in the next few weeks, according to the New York Times.

Rolling Stone said in a statement at the top of its article:

We published the article with the firm belief that it was accurate. Given all of these reports, however, we have come to the conclusion that we were mistaken in honoring Jackie’s request to not contact the alleged assaulters to get their account. In trying to be sensitive to the unfair shame and humiliation many women feel after a sexual assault, we made a judgment – the kind of judgment reporters and editors make every day. We should have not made this agreement with Jackie and we should have worked harder to convince her that the truth would have been better served by getting the other side of the story. These mistakes are on Rolling Stone, not on Jackie. We apologize to anyone who was affected by the story and we will continue to investigate the events of that evening.