CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. ― A federal judge has delivered a setback to a University of Virginia official suing Rolling Stone and one of its writers for $7.8 million, alleging she was defamed in their discredited article about campus rapes.
The judge says Nicole Eramo’s lawyers can’t show jurors any video from a deposition by the writer, Sabrina Erdely, because they leaked the tape to ABC News for a “20/20” television special Friday.
Eramo’s lawyer, Libby Locke, said they didn’t believe the tapes were confidential because written transcripts were already introduced into the court’s record.
What’s not clear from the initial reporting in Roanoke by Newsplex and other local media, is whether the judge’s order applies only to the video format, or to any and all evidence from the deposition.