Roethlisberger accused of sexual assault (suspended 6 games)

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by crzy:
Legal experts praise DA in Georgia

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10107/1051139-66.stm

Quote:
Saturday, April 17, 2010
By Michael A. Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The decision by Georgia district attorney Fredric D. Bright not to file rape charges against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is receiving plaudits from legal scholars who agree he did not have a case that warranted prosecution.

maybe he didn't have a case because the investigation was compromised...

Originally posted by HessianDud:
Georgai officer stepping down

Blash is the only officer who interviewed the quarterback. He acknowledged in an interview with investigators that he made some derogatory comments about the alleged victim to other officers.

...

The derogatory comments were in relation to the fact that the officer said he didn't believe what she was telling him. She couldn't get her story straight and had multiple different versions of the story and was totally wasted drunk.

But you don't want to tell that side of the story.

why do you think he's stepping down?

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by crzy:
Legal experts praise DA in Georgia

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10107/1051139-66.stm

Quote:
Saturday, April 17, 2010
By Michael A. Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The decision by Georgia district attorney Fredric D. Bright not to file rape charges against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is receiving plaudits from legal scholars who agree he did not have a case that warranted prosecution.

maybe he didn't have a case because the investigation was compromised...

Originally posted by HessianDud:
Georgai officer stepping down

Blash is the only officer who interviewed the quarterback. He acknowledged in an interview with investigators that he made some derogatory comments about the alleged victim to other officers.

...

The derogatory comments were in relation to the fact that the officer said he didn't believe what she was telling him. She couldn't get her story straight and had multiple different versions of the story and was totally wasted drunk.

But you don't want to tell that side of the story.

why do you think he's stepping down?

Because of public pressure. But that doesn't make it right.

He was basically saying she was telling a bullsh** story. Her story was all over the place with multiple different stories. He's an experienced police officer and investigator and he didn't believe anything she was saying. Plus he said she was real drunk and couldn't get her facts straight.

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by WINiner:

She claims she said no, but funny how nobody else heard that. One would think if a girl is being raped that she should be loud enough for one of those concerned friends to hear just the other side of a locked bathroom door.

From the statements we have, it seems pretty obvious that not only did the friends believe she was being raped, they were prevented from intervening, and were told by the bartender that "Ben's a professional athlete. He wouldn't do anything to ruin his reputation."

Originally posted by WINiner:

She got slutty and then embarresed when her friends looked at her like a tramp. They were so shocked by her behavior that they assumed she had been violated some how and she was sooo ashamed of her loose legs that she went along with it.

Obviously, completely conjecture, and revolting.

Originally posted by WINiner:

I don't believe it for a second. Funny how all these accusations come to light when the guy is a professional and has tons of cash, but the girls never had a problem with Ben when he was a college superstar with little to no $$.

Maybe he wasn't raping women when he was in college? Maybe he only started taking advantage of people after being raised to a national pedestal with millions of dollars in his pocket?

Ok so we have only seen one side of the story, THAT MUST BE THE TRUTH TELLING SIDE!!!!!!

You have friends that say they saw their drunk friend get escorted to a back room, not forced kicking and screaming.
----Fact

You have two friends who say a bodyguard wouldn't allow them to interupt.
----Fact

You have two friends who did NOT approach security or personell in the bar regarding this situation, or atleast not in a manner that said "Hey our friend is getting raped"
----Fact

You have 1 drunk girl and 2 friends who were able to find a cop right away after the incident, but no explanation as to why both, or even just one friend didn't contact police to try to prevent the alleged rape.
----Fact

Doctors examine the woman and find nothing to allow for a determination that sex was forced.
----Fact

Police investigate and find no cause to even bring charges, which little evidence is needed for in regards to rape.
----Fact

The only people in an entire nightclub who think anything went wrong are a girl who had sex, without alerting anyone else to a problem, and her two friends who admitted to hearing NO protests from their friend and only use her state as their reason to believe that anything inappropriate was happening.

Do these seem like actions that conincide with a rape situation?

Like I said, ol girl got drunk, her inner slut came out and she was terrified by the look of shock on her friends faces after the fact so she rolled along with the allegation.

Had she tried stopping the incident. Had she been forced to the back room Had ANYONE beside this girl and her friend, in a packed nightclub mind you, thought anything inappropriate had happened. Had any of that taken place I would agree with you, but they didn't. They didn't cause where there's no smoke, there's almost always no fire....

If the arresting officer truly believed that woman's story, I have a hard time believing he would call her a b***h and then pose with Big Ben.

Nobody is that heartless.

I think that arresting officer's actions above all exonerate Big Ben.

Originally posted by crzy:
If the arresting officer truly believed that woman's story, I have a hard time believing he would call her a b***h and then pose with Big Ben.

Nobody is that heartless.

I think that arresting officer's actions above all exonerate Big Ben.

As an experienced officer dealing with these types of investigations he knew her story was total BS. She gave multiple different versions of the same story and couldn't get her facts straight. That tells you a lot right there.

Originally posted by WINiner:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by WINiner:

She claims she said no, but funny how nobody else heard that. One would think if a girl is being raped that she should be loud enough for one of those concerned friends to hear just the other side of a locked bathroom door.

From the statements we have, it seems pretty obvious that not only did the friends believe she was being raped, they were prevented from intervening, and were told by the bartender that "Ben's a professional athlete. He wouldn't do anything to ruin his reputation."

Originally posted by WINiner:

She got slutty and then embarresed when her friends looked at her like a tramp. They were so shocked by her behavior that they assumed she had been violated some how and she was sooo ashamed of her loose legs that she went along with it.

Obviously, completely conjecture, and revolting.

Originally posted by WINiner:

I don't believe it for a second. Funny how all these accusations come to light when the guy is a professional and has tons of cash, but the girls never had a problem with Ben when he was a college superstar with little to no $$.

Maybe he wasn't raping women when he was in college? Maybe he only started taking advantage of people after being raised to a national pedestal with millions of dollars in his pocket?

Ok so we have only seen one side of the story, THAT MUST BE THE TRUTH TELLING SIDE!!!!!!

You have friends that say they saw their drunk friend get escorted to a back room, not forced kicking and screaming.
----Fact

You have two friends who say a bodyguard wouldn't allow them to interupt.
----Fact

You have two friends who did NOT approach security or personell in the bar regarding this situation, or atleast not in a manner that said "Hey our friend is getting raped"
----Fact

You have 1 drunk girl and 2 friends who were able to find a cop right away after the incident, but no explanation as to why both, or even just one friend didn't contact police to try to prevent the alleged rape.
----Fact

Doctors examine the woman and find nothing to allow for a determination that sex was forced.
----Fact

Police investigate and find no cause to even bring charges, which little evidence is needed for in regards to rape.
----Fact

The only people in an entire nightclub who think anything went wrong are a girl who had sex, without alerting anyone else to a problem, and her two friends who admitted to hearing NO protests from their friend and only use her state as their reason to believe that anything inappropriate was happening.

Do these seem like actions that conincide with a rape situation?

Like I said, ol girl got drunk, her inner slut came out and she was terrified by the look of shock on her friends faces after the fact so she rolled along with the allegation.

Had she tried stopping the incident. Had she been forced to the back room Had ANYONE beside this girl and her friend, in a packed nightclub mind you, thought anything inappropriate had happened. Had any of that taken place I would agree with you, but they didn't. They didn't cause where there's no smoke, there's almost always no fire....

the bolded is what I have the biggest problem with. This is why rape victims rarely make these crimes public or press charges. There's a backwards, cro-magnon way of thinking about women in this country and it always puts the blame on them in cases like this.

She tried stopping the incident by saying No. I'm sorry if I believe her side of the story, as opposed to the story of the guy who has been accused of this twice in the past year, who took pictures with the investigating officer--the officer who couldn't withhold his own backwards thinking and passed judgment on the girl because she was drunk. A responsible officer would have taken her statement and taken another when she was sober and not passed judgment at all.

Originally posted by crzy:
If the arresting officer truly believed that woman's story, I have a hard time believing he would call her a b***h and then pose with Big Ben.

Nobody is that heartless.

I think that arresting officer's actions above all exonerate Big Ben.

or discredit himself.

furthermore, its not the officers job to exonerate suspects on the scene. Its his job to gather evidence and lead the investigation.

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by crzy:
If the arresting officer truly believed that woman's story, I have a hard time believing he would call her a b***h and then pose with Big Ben.

Nobody is that heartless.

I think that arresting officer's actions above all exonerate Big Ben.

or discredit himself.

furthermore, its not the officers job to exonerate suspects on the scene. Its his job to gather evidence and lead the investigation.

The person that posed with Big Ben and the arriving officer are 2 different people. You guys both fail. It's been reproted that they are different officers...

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by crzy:
If the arresting officer truly believed that woman's story, I have a hard time believing he would call her a b***h and then pose with Big Ben.

Nobody is that heartless.

I think that arresting officer's actions above all exonerate Big Ben.

or discredit himself.

furthermore, its not the officers job to exonerate suspects on the scene. Its his job to gather evidence and lead the investigation.

The person that posed with Big Ben and the arresting officer are 2 different people. You guys both fail. It's been reproted that they are different officers...

Are you sure about that?

"It's unknown whether Blash's statement affected the investigation. Coincidentally, he's one of the cops who were photographed with Roethlisberger prior to the incident."

Link

Originally posted by crzy:
If the arresting officer truly believed that woman's story, I have a hard time believing he would call her a b***h and then pose with Big Ben.

Nobody is that heartless.

I think that arresting officer's actions above all exonerate Big Ben.

Just for clarification, the photo was taken before the incident.

There is an "arriving" officer at the scene in this case. But there is no "arresting" officer in this case.

Big Ben was never, ever arrested at all. All you guys FAIL...

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:
There is an "arriving" officer at the scene in this case. But there is no "arresting" officer in this case.

Big Ben was never, ever arrested at all. All you guys FAIL...

You're the one who said arresting officer, not me. You fail, no matter what your edited post shows.

Originally posted by horsecore:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:
There is an "arriving" officer at the scene in this case. But there is no "arresting" officer in this case.

Big Ben was never, ever arrested at all. All you guys FAIL...

You're the one who said arresting officer, not me. You fail, no matter what your edited post shows.

There is an "arriving" officer in this case. There is no arresting officer. That's the bottom line. These guys are making sh** up. No wonder they are all up in arms. 95% of the crap they are saying is pulled straight from the sky purely made up.

Follow the real facts in this alleged incident and there is nothing there. Police and prosecutors looked at it for weeks at a time desperately trying to find any little morcel. But the came up completely 100% empty despite their highest hopes that they could hang a trophy on the wall like a conviction of a famous pro athlete.

Wait, so the guy who posed with Ben wasn't the guy who took the witness statement?

Originally posted by crzy:
Wait, so the guy who posed with Ben wasn't the guy who took the witness statement?

They are 2 different officers as has been reported in the news. The person on the net in pictures with Ben is not the same person who arrived on the scene to take statements.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by crzy:
Wait, so the guy who posed with Ben wasn't the guy who took the witness statement?

They are 2 different officers as has been reported in the news. The person on the net in pictures with Ben is not the same person who arrived on the scene to take statements.

Yes he is. The officer in the photo is the officer the alleged victim approached and the officer that filed the incident report. He was not involved in the investigation afterward however.

MILLEDGEVILLE — The patrol officer who initially investigated the sexual assault complaint against Ben Roethlisberger posed for photographs with the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback an hour before his accused filed her complaint.

Sgt. Jerry Blash, who subsequently wrote a sparse incident report that did not name Roethlisberger, had a close-up picture taken with the celebrity football player inside a local bar and, later, outside the bar with a group of other officers.

Police Chief Woodrow Blue said he was not troubled by the photographs, adding that his officers handled the case correctly from the onset.

“The photographs did not and have not affected the investigation at all,” said Blue.

And while Blash, an eight-year veteran of the Milledgeville Police Department, was the officer approached by the alleged victim and the officer who wrote the incident report, Blue said Blash had little involvement in the subsequent investigation.

Questions about whether Blash filed a more detailed narrative and who took over the investigation from him were rebuffed by the chief on the grounds he could not discuss such details because of the ongoing investigation.

Blue did indicate that once his department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation complete their inquiry, they will turn their information over to District Attorney Fred Bright for a determination on whether to file charges in the case.

Link