I mentioned the Roethlisberger rape allegation a couple weeks ago. It’s been interesting to watch the story develop. I had assumed it would be a he-said-she-said regarding whether intercourse was legal. Instead, Roethlisberger is denying that intercourse took place and the whole thing apparently took place in the club bathroom. They interviewed the bar manager, who described a series of events that – whether Roethlisberger is guilty or not – make the Steelers QB not look particularly good. Further, the security recordings from the night were mysteriously erased or damaged (and not due to recording-over). The idea that the bar is trying to protect itself from any liability it has over the incident is possible. Of course, they could be concerned whether a rape took place or not.
The overall vibes I’m getting from the case are that the accuser is not a gold-digger. If she wasn’t raped, it sure seems to me as though she thinks she was (or was convinced she was). I’ve heard rumors that her BAC was .2. On one hand, that makes for pretty unreliable testimony. On the other hand, she was too drunk to consent to anything that might have occurred. It looks like they are going to have trouble proving anything did occur, though. They’ve rescinded their request for a DNA sample, which means that they are skeptical of the girl’s claims or the girl’s claims are such that there would be no DNA.
Interestingly, while I am inclined to give the Georgia accuser some benefit of the doubt in terms of good faith, the more I read about the Nevada accusation the less bad Roethlisberger looks. That one reads much more like someone that had consensual sex and for one reason or another (money, being spurned, or both) made an accusation out of it. Of course, one of the things that made me take a sour look at Roethlisberger in the Georgia accusation was that this wasn’t his first. Seems odd that someone would be falsely accused or rape but then would go out and commit one. Or, for that matter, but himself in a position where such an accusation could be credibly made.
It makes me wonder if there was some beer haze surrounding the incident and that, after finding out what Roethlisberger was accused of before, the accused (or her friends) filled in some gaps with speculation. Of course, if her BAC was as high as reports suggest, anything that occurred would still be illegal. Whatever the case, one hopes that Roethlisberger will get his act together.
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Part the first: Seems odd that someone would be falsely accused or rape but then would go out and commit one. Or, for that matter, but himself in a position where such an accusation could be credibly made. – We can pretty much draw the conclusion that Ben Roethlisberger is an idiot who gets himself into bad situations.
Part the second: We will probably never know the precise details.
Part the third: we are, theoretically, into “impasse land” here. Part of the question is: if both persons involved in sex are legally intoxicated, who raped who? Theoretically, according to the current legal theory (“if you have sex with a drunken person who is, based on being drunk, unable to give legally binding consent”), each has (in a state of inebriation) raped the other? At that point, we get into the area of the legal maneuvering whereby the girl’s side will attempt to portray the “big, mean, nasty, overpaid football player” as forcing their “helpless” client (whether an accurate portrayal or not) into sex, while the football player’s defense lawyers will alternately argue (a) innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, (b) girl’s past indicates golddigger playing the lawsuit/extortion lottery when she found out after-the-fact that he was a rich football player, (c) whatever else they can come up with.
Makes for a weird situation and if all we have is her word against his, and her side already says that a DNA test won’t help, I think it’s already murky enough that it probably should be thrown out… her side is likely going through the motions at this point hoping that Roethlisberger’s side will decide settling for an out-of-court payoff and sealing/gag order on the terms is cheaper than the dollar cost of going through the entire trial (and risking losing advertising sponsorships due to bad publicity).
It’s pretty difficult to imagine that a conviction could or would or should take place in this case.
I really don’t get a “looking for a settlement” vibe from this case, in contrast to the Nevada case. Will she sue? Oh, probably, but out of a revenge for something she believes was done to her.
It’ll be interesting to see if he does settle if she does sue and if she accepts a shut-up settlement. They didn’t settle with McNulty in Nevada. On the one hand, if it’s about revenge you wouldn’t think that she would settle. On the other, maybe if he is forced to pay enough she will make due. And since this apparently resulted in her dropping out of college, it’s probably the case that she needs money to recover from the derailment.
If I’m not mistaken, even a drunken “Yesssh” legally counts as consent to sex.
Did anyone else think it was suspicious that the security tape somehow got screwed up after the cops left it with the club manager?
I thought that was very suspicious, Sheila. Makes me suspicious that there was something on those tapes that gave the bar liability concerns. Could relate to the rape, though could relate to something else. While what actually occurred would have been out of sight of the camera, we still could have seen video of her demeanor when she left that bathroom and that might have given us some indication. Or we could have seen her stumbling out so dazed that it was obvious that consent would have been an issue. It could be something as simple as other illegal activity (drugs or whatnot) going on that they did nothing about. Or that they didn’t cut people off when they should have. Who knows? I agree, though. It’s suspicious. It’s one of the reasons I’m not quite as dismissive that something happened as I am in the Nevada case.