New Questions Raised About Rolling Stone's UVA Rape Story
— -- The college students described as friends of the alleged rape victim Jackie in an explosive Rolling Stone article revealed their identities to ABC News today, and said that some of the magazine's story is false.
"The text was so divergent from what we said that evening," said Alex Stock, who said he's identified as "Andy" in the article.
The magazine article describes a violent, three-hour gang rape that left a University of Virginia student identified as Jackie bruised and bloody when she escaped a house on fraternity row, right near the university president's office.
When her friends, identified by Rolling Stone as "Randall," "Andy" and "Cindy," arrived that night, the article says they urged Jackie to keep quiet to keep their social lives intact.
That is not the scene described by Jackie's friends to ABC News. They said at the time they believed a "traumatic" sex assault had occurred. But the two males friends said they were told that night -- Sept. 28, 2012 -- that Jackie was forced to perform oral sex on five men while a sixth stood by.
The friends pointed out another inconsistency in the Rolling Stone article, saying that the three of them were not standing right next to each other when Jackie revealed what she said happened on the night of the attack, as author Sabrina Erdely writes in the magazine.
Ryan, who asked ABC News to withhold his last name and is identified as "Randall" in the Rolling Stone article, said he got the call from Jackie first and rushed to meet her outside a dorm building. She was "crying and shaking" when she told him what happened, and he then called Alex, but relayed Jackie's wishes that Cindy not come.
Kathryn Hendley, who said she is the "Cindy" described in the magazine, said she accompanied Alex when he went to see Jackie. But she said that she hung back Jackie spoke to the two men. Hendley told ABC News the later that night, Stone told her what Jackie said, and then Jackie later described the incident herself.
Hendley also denied one cruel comment the Rolling Stone article alleges she made: "She's gonna be the girl who cried 'rape' and we'll never be allowed into any frat party again." Hendley told ABC News she definitely did not say that.
The three friends spoke to ABC News this afternoon at the U.Va. campus in Charlottesville, for the first time revealing their identities in relation to this story. In the wake of the report, U.Va. has announced dramatic new measures to keep students safe and suspended most fraternity and sorority events until the start of the next semester. Local police and an independent counsel named by the Virginia attorney general are also conducting investigations.
Since the story was first released, the friends said they have been able to find key inaccuracies in the story.
"I didn't know any Greek letters outside of what I'd learned in physics class," Ryan said.
The article describes Jackie sinking into depression after the alleged rape, and holing up in her dorm room. Not so, say her friends, who told ABC News she seemed fine after the alleged assault.
Today, the trio said they're still not sure what parts of Jackie's story are true. But they said they want to tell their story in case it is, and to prevent any future sexual assaults on campus.
"The bigger issue should be on preventing sexual assault and being able to help survivors of sexual assault," Ryan said.
Jackie's lawyer and the University of Virginia declined comment when reached by ABC News. Neither Rolling Stone nor the author of the article responded to the comments from Jackie’s three friends.
