<p>CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. &#8212; Rolling Stone&#8217;s deputy managing editor admitted on the stand Thursday that mistakes were made with the magazine&#8217;s since-discredited campus rape story, testifying that it &#8220;broke a lot of us.&#8221;</p> 
<p>&#8220;Everyone was yelling at us and rightfully so,&#8221; Sean Woods said of the reaction to the story after gang rape claims made by a University of Virginia student, identified only as Jackie, were called into question.</p> 
<p>&#8220;We needed people to know that we were addressing it as our story was falling apart.&#8221;</p> 
<p>The editor testified at the defamation trial against Rolling Stone, which is being sued for $7.85 million by former UVA associate dean Nicole Eramo, who claims the magazine&#8217;s &#8220;A Rape on Campus&#8221; story painted her as being indifferent to Jackie&#8217;s allegations that she was gang raped at a fraternity.</p> 
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry if I hurt you,&#8221; Woods told Eramo in court.</p> 
<p>&#8220;If? Did you hurt her or not? &#8230;Do you think Ms. Eramo was hurt by this story?!&#8221; the former dean&#8217;s lawyer, Libby Locke, asked him angrily.</p> 
<p>&#8220;I do. I think she is a public figure and subject to criticism,&#8221; Woods explained.</p> 
<p>Earlier, he&#8217;d said that none of the journalists involved with the piece ever fully &#8220;recovered.&#8221;</p> 
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<p>&#8220;You pick up the pieces and you move on,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think all of our reputations were trashed. It was a terrible blow.&#8221;</p> 
<p>Woods said he offered to resign after they decided to retract the story in Dec. 2014, but Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner wouldn&#8217;t let him.</p> 
<p>He testified that he was in denial when he left a voicemail for Jackie after the story was retracted saying, &#8220;We are standing behind the story. We want to stand by the story.&#8217;&#8221;</p> 
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like the stages of grief,&#8221; he told jurors.</p>
Rolling Stone editor admits rape story was botched