Roethlisberger Accused of Another Sexual Assault

[kingwilly]

Ben really has screwed the pooch, and I have yet to see pictures of these women.

Getting his cop buddies to be his "muscle", the guy is out cruising for college girl hooch, getting wasted, making a huge embarrassment out of himself and his team. Nice work, tool.

Ok, so he is quickly running up on almost 2 strikes...

I see no threat from Pitt being mounted this year. Baltimore will be better, even Cleveland but Pitt, they will go down under 7 wins.

[redsbengalsbucks]

Ben really has screwed the pooch, and I have yet to see pictures of these women.

Getting his cop buddies to be his "muscle", the guy is out cruising for college girl hooch, getting wasted, making a huge embarrassment out of himself and his team. Nice work, tool.

Ok, so he is quickly running up on almost 2 strikes...

I see no threat from Pitt being mounted this year. Baltimore will be better, even Cleveland but Pitt, they will go down under 7 wins.

I think you maybe over-estimating the effect this will have on the Stealers, they have had turds on the team for years and still win more often than not.

[COB]

From the victims standpoint, wasn't this thing pointed towards a civil courtroom all along?

I can't tell. Santonio Holmes' incident sure fits your description. But that's because Santonio was dealing with a pro.

I heard on ESPN yesterday that Holmes said the whole thing would be handled quickly and quietly. He knows she'll take the money and shut up, because going into the whole thing, he knew who he was, what he was doing, and who he was doing it with. You bust the lip of a stripper in the VIP room of the Rain Club, and, her lucky day, she collects 50 grand or whatever and everyone's happy.

Ben, on the other hand, appears to have groped a drunken 20-year-old in a college bar. Ben doesn't know who he is. He's not a big man on campus anymore, though he thinks he is. Sanantonio Holmes is smarter than Ben. He deals with women who are on his level. Ben just seems to be blundering semi-blind through life, too stupid, or too stubborn, to grow up and admit to himself who, and what, he is.

[membengal]

She (Roeth accuser) is not backing off from cooperating with the police per her attorney. So, no, I don't think the criminal portion of this has gone by the boards yet.

[BengalPimp]

From: Lucinda Holder, Chairwoman, Make A Wish Foundation of Pennsylvania

To: Ben Roethlisberger

Mr. Roethlisberger, We at Make A Wish accept your heartfelt apology regarding your egregious, callous handling of the Whitney Pettimore case. And in regards to your inquiry, yes, Whitney has passed on, though it is my understanding that she received your apology before her death.

The Make A Wish Foundation does not normally accept specific requests from celebrities. You see, the wish makers are normally the ill children, not the healthy celebrities called upon to visit the kids.

But in your case we are willing to make an exception to allow you to redeem yourself and bring happiness to a terminally ill child. Yes, we have several unfortunate young ladies between the ages of 16 and 22 who are sick with terminal diseases. And yes, some of them were high school cheerleaders, and though it is beyond me why you would ask, a couple of them, though quite ill, have "kept their booming figures," as you put it.

Your request to meet with a young lady who's illness has left her physically weak is almost redundant. They are all quite weak. You specified that she "not be able to fight back." We do have some cases in that are stage 4, no longer receiving treatment, and unable to fight their illnesses any longer.

As you know, all our Make A Wish visits are chaperoned. Your request that the chaperone be a female in her 20s, under 105 pounds, is highly unusual. Your agent passed on your requirement that the chaperone be "frail", and that she is to have never taken any self defense or martial arts classes.

Mr. Roethlisberger, our chaperones are all volunteers, and there is no way for us to know such things about them. Having said that, I guess there is no harm in, as you suggested, our soliciting volunteer chaperones from the freshman pledge class at the Delta Delta Delta sorority at Pitt.

We'll contact you in the near future with more information, thanks for your involvement with the Make A Wish Foundation.

Warmest Regards,

Lucinda Holder

WOW ! I can't even comment....I mean....

[ArmyBengal]

From: Lucinda Holder, Chairwoman, Make A Wish Foundation of Pennsylvania

To: Ben Roethlisberger

Mr. Roethlisberger, We at Make A Wish accept your heartfelt apology regarding your egregious, callous handling of the Whitney Pettimore case. And in regards to your inquiry, yes, Whitney has passed on, though it is my understanding that she received your apology before her death.

The Make A Wish Foundation does not normally accept specific requests from celebrities. You see, the wish makers are normally the ill children, not the healthy celebrities called upon to visit the kids.

But in your case we are willing to make an exception to allow you to redeem yourself and bring happiness to a terminally ill child. Yes, we have several unfortunate young ladies between the ages of 16 and 22 who are sick with terminal diseases. And yes, some of them were high school cheerleaders, and though it is beyond me why you would ask, a couple of them, though quite ill, have "kept their booming figures," as you put it.

Your request to meet with a young lady who's illness has left her physically weak is almost redundant. They are all quite weak. You specified that she "not be able to fight back." We do have some cases in that are stage 4, no longer receiving treatment, and unable to fight their illnesses any longer.

As you know, all our Make A Wish visits are chaperoned. Your request that the chaperone be a female in her 20s, under 105 pounds, is highly unusual. Your agent passed on your requirement that the chaperone be "frail", and that she is to have never taken any self defense or martial arts classes.

Mr. Roethlisberger, our chaperones are all volunteers, and there is no way for us to know such things about them. Having said that, I guess there is no harm in, as you suggested, our soliciting volunteer chaperones from the freshman pledge class at the Delta Delta Delta sorority at Pitt.

We'll contact you in the near future with more information, thanks for your involvement with the Make A Wish Foundation.

Warmest Regards,

Lucinda Holder

WOW ! I can't even comment....I mean....

Holy sh*t, how did I miss that the first time around ??

F*cking priceless !!!

[kingwilly]

Ben really has screwed the pooch, and I have yet to see pictures of these women.

Getting his cop buddies to be his "muscle", the guy is out cruising for college girl hooch, getting wasted, making a huge embarrassment out of himself and his team. Nice work, tool.

Ok, so he is quickly running up on almost 2 strikes...

I see no threat from Pitt being mounted this year. Baltimore will be better, even Cleveland but Pitt, they will go down under 7 wins.

I think you maybe over-estimating the effect this will have on the Stealers, they have had turds on the team for years and still win more often than not.

Not at QB.

[COB]

Remember when, around 3 years ago, the Commissioner said the NFL would no longer just lockstep their discipline with the criminal case, if any? He said they'd do their own investigation, and act quickly, regardless of whether a criminal charge was filed, a conviction was won, etc.

For a while they did.

Now where's all the talk of "Protecting the Shield"?

He loves the Steelers and the Rooneys.

[semiotter]

Do you guys remember when the Bengals were going through this a few years back how the Steeler fans were busting our balls. I wonder how they feel now.

[derekshank]

Florio says it's up to the DA.

So... he might get charged, he might not. But, we'll find out very soon. And if he does get charged, you can bet he's in big trouble - because no one wants to be Marcia Clark. If they charge him, he'll either take a deal, or be looking at a long drawn out trial. Either way, that will be really bad news for Steeler fans.

[skyline]

Did anyone catch Hobson's slam on Ben? This is a quote referring to the possibility of the Bengals drafting Tebow.

A quarterback that keeps himself out of trouble? This isn’t the team in the AFC North that has that need.

[derekshank]

There is plenty to speculate about here with this statement.

Like, what would make the media eat crow? An arrest?

[Ickey44]

Did anyone catch Hobson's slam on Ben? This is a quote referring to the possibility of the Bengals drafting Tebow.

A quarterback that keeps himself out of trouble? This isn’t the team in the AFC North that has that need.

Hahahahahahahahahahaha

[membengal]

Prosecutor to call a press conference to announce his decision on whether or not to indict on Monday:

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. (AP) -- A district attorney in Georgia plans to announce whether charges will be brought in a case of sexual assault accusations against Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

District Attorney Fred Bright said in a statement Friday that he had reviewed all the investigation reports and will hold a news conference Monday to announce a decision.

Authorities earlier this week wrapped up their investigation into a 20-year-old college student's claim that the two-time Superbowl champion sexually assaulted her early March 5 at a club in Milledgeville.

No charges have been filed. Roethlisberger's lawyer, Ed Garland, has disputed the assault claim and hired his own team to investigate.

Does he go to all that trouble to say he's not indicting? Hard to say what his motivations are. Guess we will know on Monday one way or the other.

[derekshank]

Prosecutor to call a press conference to announce his decision on whether or not to indict on Monday:

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. (AP) -- A district attorney in Georgia plans to announce whether charges will be brought in a case of sexual assault accusations against Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

District Attorney Fred Bright said in a statement Friday that he had reviewed all the investigation reports and will hold a news conference Monday to announce a decision.

Authorities earlier this week wrapped up their investigation into a 20-year-old college student's claim that the two-time Superbowl champion sexually assaulted her early March 5 at a club in Milledgeville.

No charges have been filed. Roethlisberger's lawyer, Ed Garland, has disputed the assault claim and hired his own team to investigate.

Does he go to all that trouble to say he's not indicting? Hard to say what his motivations are. Guess we will know on Monday one way or the other.

Yeah... you don't usually hold a press conference to say you're not indicting. However, the rules are different when it's a celebrity, so it's hard to read.

I will say that I think it's either a very good case, or no case at all, simply because the investigation took over a month, but the decision on whether or not to prosecute took less than a week. Either the DA took a look at it and said "There's nothing here." Or he said, "Yep, we got this bastard." I don't really see a 3rd option.

Update: Say what you want about Florio, but as a lawyer he sometimes brings some insight I wouldn't have thought of, like this:

Regardless of whether he'll (the DA) be running again (for reelection) in as little as two years, Bright's position is, at a certain level, inherently political. And it simply wouldn't be politically prudent to hold a press conference aimed at telling the world that one of the locals is lying.

[walzav29]

I haven't said a peep about this. We'll see what happens. I'm no lawyer, but it seems odd that the DA would have a press conference to announce they aren't pursuing a case. Especially since Ben refuses to talk with police and hired some big gun attorney's pretty quick. This zoo will make the Michael Vick circus seem like nothing.

On a side note. It's really something how if you have money you can pull off just not speaking to police. It reminds me of that Chappell skit.

[kingwilly]

I haven't said a peep about this. We'll see what happens. I'm no lawyer, but it seems odd that the DA would have a press conference to announce they aren't pursuing a case. Especially since Ben refuses to talk with police and hired some big gun attorney's pretty quick. This zoo will make the Michael Vick circus seem like nothing.

On a side note. It's really something how if you have money you can pull off just not speaking to police. It reminds me of that Chappell skit.

Not talking to the police is a fundamental right: the right to remain silent.

The police can "request" you talk to them but you really are under no obligation to speak.

Once you are arrested, and charged, it becomes even more serious.

I have no love for Benji but he has very little to gain legally by heading to the station, voluntarily, and subject himself to their questions.

Now, what can be made of the Monday announcement? Who knows, though if there was an arrest coming, they'de probably announce there was enough evidence to charge him and request he turn himself in to the police to be arrested/processed.

Either way, the guy has shown a pattern of poor decisions and behavior that would infuriate me if I were a Rooney or Tomlin.

[derekshank]

Ben refuses to talk with police and hired some big gun attorney's pretty quick.

Ben was clearly told by his attorney what every defense attorney already knows. Never talk to the police!!!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

The video is a little long... but worth watching. At least the 1st half... and then see the police officer's reaction saying "Yeah, everything he said was right."

That said... regarding the press conference, it's hard to read. If they are going to charge him, why wait until Monday? Put out an arrest warrant today!

If they aren't going to charge him, why have a press conference at all? Just tell the newspaper that while you don't exonerate him, there isn't enough hard evidence to go forward.

Really, all I can take from this at all is that this DA is an elected official who wants his 10 minutes of fame. One way or another, he's going to try to make himself look good in this press conference. It's hard to read into it more than that.

[kingwilly]

Ben refuses to talk with police and hired some big gun attorney's pretty quick.

Ben was clearly told by his attorney what every defense attorney already knows. Never talk to the police!!!

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

The video is a little long... but worth watching. At least the 1st half... and then see the police officer's reaction saying "Yeah, everything he said was right."

That said... regarding the press conference, it's hard to read. If they are going to charge him, why wait until Monday? Put out an arrest warrant today!

If they aren't going to charge him, why have a press conference at all? Just tell the newspaper that while you don't exonerate him, there isn't enough hard evidence to go forward.

Really, all I can take from this at all is that this DA is an elected official who wants his 10 minutes of fame. One way or another, he's going to try to make himself look good in this press conference. It's hard to read into it more than that.

It is a national story and given the amount of attention this draws, having a structured presser is the way to go.

Sure, the DA wants to look good and project they've done everything properly no matter what the result is. They are doing it the way they should do it.

Ben and his atty probably know what is coming, wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing is dropped.

[walzav29]

http://www.ajc.com/news/espn-manager-told-by-403543.html

This is intersting to me. She didn't want a 2nd interview with police, the tape disappeared. It would seem odd for the DA to say, "No harm, no foul". The girl dropped out of school, was hysterical and now doesn't want to talk. She must have been damn convincing to someone at some point.

[membengal]

I had read Florio's take, but he goes a bit too far, in my opinion.

The prosecutor can hold the presser, decline to indict, and explain why without calling a constituent a liar. It may be too hard to get a conviction under the beyond a reasonable doubt standard, and he may decline to prosecute based on that. Doesn't make her a liar, nor take away from what is certain to be the civil suit.

At any rate, all conjecture until Monday.

[membengal]

We've been discussing "Ben" over on the NFL forum since this started.

ETA:

/>http://forums.bengalszone.com/index.php?showtopic=21370&st=0

[walzav29]

We've been discussing "Ben" over on the NFL forum since this started.

I know, sorry. I just figured we'll know 1 way or another Monday. Merge away.

[HairOnFire]

Yeah... you don't usually hold a press conference to say you're not indicting. However, the rules are different when it's a celebrity, so it's hard to read.

At first glance I just assumed it was a question of timing. Do you make the announcement at the end of the week and then deal with the reaction during the weekend or make the announcement at the beginning of a normal working week? Knowing how the extra time will give more opportunity to prepare, and this guy is going to want all he can get, it seems like a no brainer to give the press something on Friday, and then something more a few days later.

I will say that I think it's either a very good case, or no case at all, simply because the investigation took over a month, but the decision on whether or not to prosecute took less than a week. Either the DA took a look at it and said "There's nothing here." Or he said, "Yep, we got this bastard." I don't really see a 3rd option.

I don't know how you DON'T press forward. Ben admits having sexual contact in a nightclub, in a bathroom, behind doors being blocked by a private posse of hanger-ons, with a drunken 20-year old girl, who at some point either withdrew her consent or was simply too drunk to legally give it in the first place.

Frankly, I'm not a lawyer, but if I was I'd spend a few hours this weekend buying a few more suits and a rack of ties.

[derekshank]

ESPN is reporting he won't face charges.