Reports: 'Rolling Stone' editor out amid suit over rape story

The managing editor of Rolling Stone magazine is resigning, according to a media report, after three graduates of the University of Virginia filed a defamation suit against the magazine over a story about an alleged rape on campus.

Will Dana will depart on Aug. 7, according to The New York Times, which attributed the news to a spokesman for Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone publisher Wenner Media. No specific reason was given for Dana's departure, the Times reported. Wenner Media also is named in the suit.

The claim filed by the three men also names journalist Sabrina Ruden Erdely, who wrote the piece, titled, "A Rape on Campus." The men claim they suffered "emotional turmoil" and were unable to focus at work or school after the story appeared.

The November 2014 piece offered details of an alleged 2012 gang rape on campus that a freshman experienced at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house.

The three plaintiffs are seeking damages for emotional distress and defamation, according to ABC News.

No one at Rolling Stone or its publisher could immediately be reached Wednesday night. Rolling Stone lawyer Elizabeth McNamara, based in New York, could not be reached Wednesday evening.

The story sparked a national debate over sexual violence on American campuses, but a probe by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism commissioned by Rolling Stone found reporting gaps in reporting. Erdely apologized and Rolling Stone promised to follow recommendations made by Columbia.

The three men who filed the lawsuit graduated in 2013.

One of them, George Elias IV, lived in the room where the alleged rape took place, Reuters reported.

"Upon release of the article, family, friends, acquaintances, coworkers and reporters easily matched Plaintiff as one of the alleged attackers and, among other things, interrogated him, humiliated him, and scolded him," Reuters quotes the lawsuit as saying.

The other two plaintiffs are Stephen Hadford and Ross Fowler.