Roethlisberger accused of sexual assault (suspended 6 games)

Originally posted by horsecore:

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

It says in your own article that Blue and Blash had little to do with the investigation. They were not the investigating officers. That person may have been initially approached because he was sitting there in the same bar as Ben.

The officer in the pics.

"He was off duty," said GCSU spokesman Harry Battson. "He was not at the Capital City. When he reported for duty Friday, he immediately told us that he had been briefly with Mr. Roethlisberger. He has no role whatsoever in the investigation."

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_671387.html

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:
The officer in the pics.

"He was off duty," said GCSU spokesman Harry Battson. "He was not at the Capital City. When he reported for duty Friday, he immediately told us that he had been briefly with Mr. Roethlisberger. He has no role whatsoever in the investigation."

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_671387.html

What's your point? What officer are you referring to? The quote above is in reference to an officer from the Georgia College & State University campus police.

This is officer Blash:



Officer Blash is the officer that took the alleged victim's complaint and filed the report. You're correct in stating that he did not participate in the ensuing investigation but your comment that "The person on the net in pictures with Ben is not the same person who arrived on the scene to take statements" is incorrect.

Mind you, he is the same officer that made these comments:

"In the report, investigators claim that on the night of the alleged incident, Blash admitted that after he encountered the accuser, he may have made a comment similar to "this f*cking b***h is drunk" or "this b***h is drunk off her ass accusing Ben of assaulting her."

Investigators also report that on the night of the incident, Blash informed the accuser and her friends that "Roethlisberger has a lot of money" and if the women were to follow through with a police report, they "would be wasting their time."

its always great to see only the best and brightest in the law enforcement ranks

Originally posted by danimal:
its always great to see only the best and brightest in the law enforcement ranks

Indeed.

Originally posted by HessianDud:

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.

No the problem in the country is proven by the majority of the responses in this forum. That a girl can be ashamed of what she's done and cry rape to make it all better. That a mans character can be slandered when a police investigation says he committed no crime.

She claims she said no....nobody else heard that. She HAS to say that for there to be rape. So if she's going to claim it was rape, what else would you expect her to say?

Look do women get raped? Yes they do, but the scenario presented stinks it's so damn fishy. For example. How was it that only Ben and this girl were in a bathroom? Every club I have ever been to has busy restrooms. No body guard is holding back a throng of men or women with floating teeth, and if they were then there would have been reports of such. Also if reports are correct these bodyguards were off duty cops. Why would an off duty cop facilitate rape?

Originally posted by WINiner:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

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.

No the problem in the country is proven by the majority of the responses in this forum. That a girl can be ashamed of what she's done and cry rape to make it all better. That a mans character can be slandered for when a police investigation says he committed no crime.

She claims she said no....nobody else heard that. She HAS to say that for there to be rape. So if she's going to claim it was rape, what else would you expect her to say?

Look do women get raped? Yes they do, but the scenario presented stinks it's so damn fishy. For example. How was it that only Ben and this girl were in a bathroom? Every club I have ever been to has busy restrooms. No body guard is holding back a throng of men or women with floating teeth, and if they were then there would have been reports of such. Also if reports are correct these bodyguards were off duty cops. Why would an off duty cop facilitate rape?

He wouldn't. They investigated and found nothing.

Originally posted by WINiner:


No the problem in the country is proven by the majority of the responses in this forum. That a girl can be ashamed of what she's done and cry rape to make it all better. That a mans character can be slandered when a police investigation says he committed no crime.

Your assumptions and your biases, which elevate the word of a celebrity male over that of a woman and show a distrust in general of women who claim sexual assault.

Originally posted by WINiner:

She claims she said no....nobody else heard that. She HAS to say that for there to be rape. So if she's going to claim it was rape, what else would you expect her to say?

I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean. You think she went into the bar planning to claim rape? That it was premeditated? What is her motive?

Originally posted by WINiner:

Look do women get raped? Yes they do, but the scenario presented stinks it's so damn fishy. For example. How was it that only Ben and this girl were in a bathroom? Every club I have ever been to has busy restrooms. No body guard is holding back a throng of men or women with floating teeth, and if they were then there would have been reports of such. Also if reports are correct these bodyguards were off duty cops. Why would an off duty cop facilitate rape?

The scenario does stink, you are right about that.

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by WINiner:


No the problem in the country is proven by the majority of the responses in this forum. That a girl can be ashamed of what she's done and cry rape to make it all better. That a mans character can be slandered when a police investigation says he committed no crime.

Your assumptions and your biases, which elevate the word of a celebrity male over that of a woman and show a distrust in general of women who claim sexual assault.

Originally posted by WINiner:

She claims she said no....nobody else heard that. She HAS to say that for there to be rape. So if she's going to claim it was rape, what else would you expect her to say?

I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean. You think she went into the bar planning to claim rape? That it was premeditated? What is her motive?

Originally posted by WINiner:

Look do women get raped? Yes they do, but the scenario presented stinks it's so damn fishy. For example. How was it that only Ben and this girl were in a bathroom? Every club I have ever been to has busy restrooms. No body guard is holding back a throng of men or women with floating teeth, and if they were then there would have been reports of such. Also if reports are correct these bodyguards were off duty cops. Why would an off duty cop facilitate rape?

The scenario does stink, you are right about that.

My biases elevate the word of a celebrity male? No not my biases, although I do have some, but rather the medical findings and the extensive police investigation that found no wrong doing. They are what raises the word of a celebrity male imo

Yep I will admit to it. I do have a distrust for women who cry rape in fishy situations. I have been accused and was looking at serious trouble cause it was my word against hers, and god forbid anyone NOT automatically side with the accuser, the poor girl (sarcasm heavy on that comment). Especially in a country where you are innocent until proven guilty (yeah effin right).

I know how Ben feels having everyone look at you like a piece of trash when you did absolutely nothing wrong (granted he shouldn't put himself in those situations). To have people you have known for years turn their back on you at the drop of an accusation all because I didn't want a long term relationship. The girl TOLD me she was going to cry rape, and when I told the authorities that they looked at me like I was some kind of monster. Also similar to this case, the investigation found no sign of forced entry, no evidence of wrong doing, yet people and authorities were still believing her over me, cause god forbid anyone actually stop and think instead of the auto reaction that they feel is appropriate.

In my case the girls best friend grew a conscious and told the police that her friend told her both before and after the party that she intended on having sex with me and the rape charge was a result of a hurt ego. After that the wheels feel off ol girls rape story and she later admitted that she was willing. Do you think I got one apology for the nasty things people in a position of authority called me? Do you think those people I knew who turned their backs on me just like that, all the sudden realized their mistake and were friendly again? To this day there are STILL people I see in the town I grew up in who won't talk to me, nearly 20 years later.

Did she get in any trouble at all for bringing the charge she knew damn well was false? For forcing the investigation of a crime she knew damn well didn't happen? For wasting tax payers money because she couldn't control her ego? Did she have to even apologize for trying to have me incarcerated and my life ruined for her ego? Nope, nothing, nada. I STILL deal with garbage from that little incident and here that b***h sending me friends invites on Facebook nearly 20 years later.

I got lots of tail when I was younger, and never ever hurt a girl/woman or made them do anything, and stopped on several occasions when asked to (could never get those virgins to complete the act). My mamma raisedd me right and I treat women right, always have, always will.

No I don't think it was premeditated, but if she is going to claim rape, whether rape happened or not, then she has to say she said no, or there is no rape, so of course she says she said no.

Originally posted by WINiner:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by WINiner:


No the problem in the country is proven by the majority of the responses in this forum. That a girl can be ashamed of what she's done and cry rape to make it all better. That a mans character can be slandered when a police investigation says he committed no crime.

Your assumptions and your biases, which elevate the word of a celebrity male over that of a woman and show a distrust in general of women who claim sexual assault.

Originally posted by WINiner:

She claims she said no....nobody else heard that. She HAS to say that for there to be rape. So if she's going to claim it was rape, what else would you expect her to say?

I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean. You think she went into the bar planning to claim rape? That it was premeditated? What is her motive?

Originally posted by WINiner:

Look do women get raped? Yes they do, but the scenario presented stinks it's so damn fishy. For example. How was it that only Ben and this girl were in a bathroom? Every club I have ever been to has busy restrooms. No body guard is holding back a throng of men or women with floating teeth, and if they were then there would have been reports of such. Also if reports are correct these bodyguards were off duty cops. Why would an off duty cop facilitate rape?

The scenario does stink, you are right about that.

My biases elevate the word of a celebrity male? No not my biases, although I do have some, but rather the medical findings and the extensive police investigation that found no wrong doing. They are what raises the word of a celebrity male imo

Yep I will admit to it. I do have a distrust for women who cry rape in fishy situations. I have been accused and was looking at serious trouble cause it was my word against hers, and god forbid anyone NOT automatically side with the accuser, the poor girl (sarcasm heavy on that comment). Especially in a country where you are innocent until proven guilty (yeah effin right).

I know how Ben feels having everyone look at you like a piece of trash when you did absolutely nothing wrong (granted he shouldn't put himself in those situations). To have people you have known for years turn their back on you at the drop of an accusation all because I didn't want a long term relationship. The girl TOLD me she was going to cry rape, and when I told the authorities that they looked at me like I was some kind of monster. Also similar to this case, the investigation found no sign of forced entry, no evidence of wrong doing, yet people and authorities were still believing her over me, cause god forbid anyone actually stop and think instead of the auto reaction that they feel is appropriate.

In my case the girls best friend grew a conscious and told the police that her friend told her both before and after the party that she intended on having sex with me and the rape charge was a result of a hurt ego. After that the wheels feel off ol girls rape story and she later admitted that she was willing. Do you think I got one apology for the nasty things people in a position of authority called me? Do you think those people I knew who turned their backs on me just like that, all the sudden realized their mistake and were friendly again? To this day there are STILL people I see in the town I grew up in who won't talk to me, nearly 20 years later.

Did she get in any trouble at all for bringing the charge she knew damn well was false? For forcing the investigation of a crime she knew damn well didn't happen? For wasting tax payers money because she couldn't control her ego? Did she have to even apologize for trying to have me incarcerated and my life ruined for her ego? Nope, nothing, nada. I STILL deal with garbage from that little incident and here that b***h sending me friends invites on Facebook nearly 20 years later.

I got lots of tail when I was younger, and never ever hurt a girl/woman or made them do anything, and stopped on several occasions when asked to (could never get those virgins to complete the act). My mamma raisedd me right and I treat women right, always have, always will.

No I don't think it was premeditated, but if she is going to claim rape, whether rape happened or not, then she has to say she said no, or there is no rape, so of course she says she said no.

I'm sorry to hear that, Win. I definitely agree that that there should be punishment for women who make false rape accusations, especially, like in situations like yours where it was very pre-meditated.

One of the things that the Roethlisberger case highlights, which imo is one of the reasons why there isn't such punishment, is that women have a long-standing cultural stigma against their sexuality being held against them. For instance, you've said that this girl "got her slut on" or whatever your words were and then was "ashamed of herself" and had to do something to make up for it. Maybe you know women like that, but I don't, and regardless I think you have to give people the benefit of the doubt. Why doesn't Big Ben get that benefit from me? Because this is the second time this accusation has been made and where there's smoke, there's fire, and based on the woman's statements, and those of her friends, it sure seems to me that he did something wrong.

I'm sorry but I don't buy the "lack of evidence" argument. The police were unwilling to listen to the girls story because she was drunk. Of course her wording of the story changed from when she was drunk to when she was sober; your mental capacity changes from being drunk to sober. The story is the evidence. Physical evidence is not always the slam dunk. She might not have resisted thinking that it would be safer for her to go along with it. But of course that's an assumption, I don't know what happened, but I know that she said, "I said no, this isn't ok, he said it was ok, and then he had sex with me."

The facts we have say that the police decided there wasn't evidence of a crime--in some of my earlier posts I tried to look into Georgia's sexual crimes laws, and it appears they have some different laws for sexual assault than other places--and the girl has declined to press charges, presumably to try and move on with her life and not make this anymore of a public spectacle. And we know that Roethlisberger has been accused of this twice in the past year, was getting under age girls drunk, and has in general shown immature behavior, putting himself into bad situations. I think Goodell or the Steelers should suspend him for violations of the personal conduct policy or for conduct detrimental to the team, and hopefully nothing like this will happen again. The next time, it might not be so ambiguous what happened.

Originally posted by HessianDud:
I'm sorry to hear that, Win. I definitely agree that that there should be punishment for women who make false rape accusations, especially, like in situations like yours where it was very pre-meditated.

One of the things that the Roethlisberger case highlights, which imo is one of the reasons why there isn't such punishment, is that women have a long-standing cultural stigma against their sexuality being held against them. For instance, you've said that this girl "got her slut on" or whatever your words were and then was "ashamed of herself" and had to do something to make up for it. Maybe you know women like that, but I don't, and regardless I think you have to give people the benefit of the doubt. Why doesn't Big Ben get that benefit from me? Because this is the second time this accusation has been made and where there's smoke, there's fire, and based on the woman's statements, and those of her friends, it sure seems to me that he did something wrong.

I'm sorry but I don't buy the "lack of evidence" argument. The police were unwilling to listen to the girls story because she was drunk. Of course her wording of the story changed from when she was drunk to when she was sober; your mental capacity changes from being drunk to sober. The story is the evidence. Physical evidence is not always the slam dunk. She might not have resisted thinking that it would be safer for her to go along with it. But of course that's an assumption, I don't know what happened, but I know that she said, "I said no, this isn't ok, he said it was ok, and then he had sex with me."

The facts we have say that the police decided there wasn't evidence of a crime--in some of my earlier posts I tried to look into Georgia's sexual crimes laws, and it appears they have some different laws for sexual assault than other places--and the girl has declined to press charges, presumably to try and move on with her life and not make this anymore of a public spectacle. And we know that Roethlisberger has been accused of this twice in the past year, was getting under age girls drunk, and has in general shown immature behavior, putting himself into bad situations. I think Goodell or the Steelers should suspend him for violations of the personal conduct policy or for conduct detrimental to the team, and hopefully nothing like this will happen again. The next time, it might not be so ambiguous what happened.

You bring up a lot of good points in your post Hessian and there is still information coming out about the investigation, as such:

"Evidence emerges of a botched investigation in Georgia
Posted by Mike Florio on April 18, 2010 11:25 AM ET

There's a common misconception that prosecutors often are inclined to give high-profile suspects a pass. If anything, the reverse is true; prosecutors realize that law enforcement has limited budgets and a broad mandate that includes the deterrence of crime. By targeting folks who are famous, the deterrent effect has maximum impact. Every phase of the proceedings receives widespread attention, creating an extended commercial for the justice system.

The reality is that the seeds of a big-name guy (or girl) getting a pass often are planted at the front lines, by the things police do, or fail to do. The latest item from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette points out that several flaws in the investigation regarding the claim of sexual assault against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, which may have prevented the collection of potentially incriminating evidence -- and that also would have given lawyer Ed Garland plenty of fodder for a jury finding of reasonable doubt.

Most glaringly, the police failed to seal the alleged crime scene, a five-foot-wide bathroom in the dark recesses of a Milledgeville, Georgia nightclub. Per Jonathan D. Silver of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, roughly eight hours after the alleged incident, a janitor "scrubbed the sink, floor and toilet with Clorox and Pine-Sol." (Our guess is that it's the first time the sink, floor, and toilet in question ever were scrubbed with Clorox and Pine-Sol.) Not surprisingly, the eventual attempt to gather evidence from the bathroom yielded nothing, other than the delightful odor of Clorox and Pine-Sol masking the funk of a five-foot-wide bathroom in the dark recesses of a Milledgeville, Georgia nightclub.

Review of the available documents by Pitt law professor Alexander Lindsay, a former federal and state prosecutor, resulted in a conclusion that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation "worked the hell out of the case but it was muffed at the beginning."

In response, Milledgeville police chief Woodrow Blue claims that it was "of no consequence" that the bathroom had not been sealed off. (We can understand why he'd say that; we can't understand why anyone would believe it. Including Blue.)

Then there's now-former Milledgeville police officer Jerry Blash, who posed for a picture with Roethlisberger before being asked by colleague Willie Goddard to look into the allegation of sexual assault. Blash's reports reflected that the alleged victim said she wasn't raped. The statements from the alleged victim and her friends, though having some internal consistencies that independently could have created reasonable doubt in the mind of a jury, were consistent as to the claim of non-consensual sex.

At one point, Blash and the alleged victim "argued on the street with voices raised" regarding whether Blash would take a formal report, according to the alleged victim's friends. Said GBI special agent Ryan Carmichael, "Blash was frustrated because the victim could barely stand, and that pissed Blash off. . . . The victim's friends got on Blash's nerves because he kept asking them were they back there with her, and they said no."

The article from Silver also points out just how close authorities came to securing an interview with Roethlisberger, a rare occurrence in criminal probes. On March 8, investigators were negotiating with Garland the terms of a possible sit-down. Garland was considering making Roethlisberger available if the authorities would first provide details of the allegations. (Garland would say that he wanted this information to ensure that Roethlisberger didn't inadvertently misrepresent indisputable facts not known to Garland; if Garland were being candid, he'd admit that he also wanted to be sure that his client didn't intentionally misrepresent indisputable facts not known to Garland, either. Put another way, Garland didn't want Roethlisberger to unwittingly walk into a lie.)

It appeared that the swap would occur, but then district attorney Fred Bright informed a gathering of top prosecutors and investigators that he already had given the information to Garland. (Apparently, Bright's mentor was Gerald Poindexter.)

None of this means that Roethlisberger did what the alleged victim claims he did. But it shows just how hard it would have been to get a conviction under the very high standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. And given that the alleged victim's family was leery of the Milledgeville police department -- and possibly resigned to the fact that the alleged victim's version of the events never would be vindicated in a court of law -- it's not surprising that the alleged victim opted not to proceed, especially if at some point between March 5 and March 17 she received a confidential financial offer aimed at securing a full release of all claims she could make against Roethlisberger.

The justice system has one fundamental purpose: the pursuit of truth. In this case, the truth will never be fully known, due to the apparent actions and inactions of authorities, the bungling of the opportunity to talk to Roethlisberger, and the eventual decision that, given the holes in the investigation, no jury would ever reject Ed Garland's silver-tongued, "if it don't fit you must acquit" call for a finding of "reasonable doubt," the two words that have kept many truly guilty men out of prison all in the hopes of ensuring that the innocents among us will never be thrown wrongfully in jail."

Link

Originally posted by danimal:
its always great to see only the best and brightest in the law enforcement ranks

LOL

And rofl at SanDeigo telling everybody they fail.

-9fA

Dude's hella lucky he got out of trouble. He may still be facing some suspension time in the NFL, but the biggest thing is everyone now knows he's a creepy drunk girl stalker. That plus everytime he's mentioned on TV, radio and print, the rape thing will be brought up at some point. That sh*t never goes away.

Originally posted by BigDaddy:
Dude's hella lucky he got out of trouble. He may still be facing some suspension time in the NFL, but the biggest thing is everyone now knows he's a creepy drunk girl stalker. That plus everytime he's mentioned on TV, radio and print, the rape thing will be brought up at some point. That sh*t never goes away.

more like he's lucky to escape two rape accusations in back-to-back offseasons. he must have gone to the Kobe Bryant school of how to rape young drunk women and get off free. he needs to get suspended more than 4 games IMHO. also, there are rumbles that Pittsburg Steelers as whole organization are going to get some serious fines for player misconduct.

Rape is Rape no matter if one is convicted or not. I did not write but will quote this he's "forever going to be in jail just minus the bars".

Originally posted by Negrodamus:

Originally posted by BigDaddy:
Dude's hella lucky he got out of trouble. He may still be facing some suspension time in the NFL, but the biggest thing is everyone now knows he's a creepy drunk girl stalker. That plus everytime he's mentioned on TV, radio and print, the rape thing will be brought up at some point. That sh*t never goes away.

more like he's lucky to escape two rape accusations in back-to-back offseasons. he must have gone to the Kobe Bryant school of how to rape young drunk women and get off free. he needs to get suspended more than 4 games IMHO. also, there are rumbles that Pittsburg Steelers as whole organization are going to get some serious fines for player misconduct.

Rape is Rape no matter if one is convicted or not. I did not write but will quote this he's "forever going to be in jail just minus the bars".

Jay Z?