In a bare-knuckled attack against the attorney who filed a lawsuit on behalf of a woman who claims sexual assault by the starting quarterback of the Steelers quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger seeks the imposition of sanctions against lawyer Calvin Dunlap.
The motion for sanctions relies upon Rule 11 of the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedures. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the motion has been served on Dunlap. Under the rules, he’ll have three weeks to withdraw the case. If he doesn’t, the motion will then be filed.
Most American jurisdictions employ an identical provision aimed at preventing the filing of frivolous documents. Here, Roethlisberger alleges that Dunlap violated Rule 11 by failing to conduct a proper pre-suit investigation regarding the validity of his client’s allegations of sexual assault.
The easy response? Dunlap is entitled to rely upon his client’s version of the events, even if a jury never believes her. After all, this case entails a “he said/she said” dispute with no objective, contemporaneous evidence. So Dunlap should be able to accept as true the “she said” portion of the discrepancy.
But the legal brief filed by Roethlisberger’s legal team argues that Dunlap failed to gather readily available evidence, such as e-mail messages in the possession of the plaintiff, and that Dunlap made no meaningful effort to interview current or former co-workers at Harrah’s.
In response to a growing mountain of evidence pointing to behavior that is inconsistent with the plaintiff’s claim of unconsensual sex, Dunlap has suggested that he will produce expert witnesses who will testify that this conduct is commonplace for sexual assault victims.
If Dunlap opts to proceed with the litigation, he will be forced to explain in response to the motion for sanctions whether he knew about the inconsistent behavior before filiing suit. If he didn’t, a court could conclude that he’s merely trying to cover his butt after the fact.
Like most of Roethlisberger’s filings, the motion is high on rhetoric, among other things calling the case a “frontal attack on America’s system of jurisprudence.” And a reasonable observer might conclude that Roethlisberger is merely trying to get the plaintiff and Dunlap to cry “Uncle.”
Our guess is that Dunlap won’t cower. And when such tactics don’t produce fear, they often generate anger and a renewed resolved. So look for Dunlap to fight. Even if, in the end, the judge presiding over the case concludes that Dunlap has violated Rule 11.
If such a determination is made, Dunlap could be required to reimburse Roethlisberger for all attorneys’ fees incurred in defending the case. Given the amount of work performed to date, it’s likely that the charges already have entered the territory of six figures.
I at first tended to believe that this was just another golddigger. But the more that Big bens attorneys attack and attack, I am starting to lean my sympathy to the accusor. Back in the day, attacks on an alledged rape victim usually meant they would cower and fold. But more and more nowadays, victims hire attorneys like Gloria Allred to fight back. Cornwell is on the verge of turning sentiment against Big Ben and I think he should back off and try the case in court instead of using intimidation and threats.
Women on a possible jury are not going to look kindly on the tactics that the defendants lawyers are using, This will backfire, and I for one am getting sick of the attacks on the female. Try the damn case in court, and quit trying to slander the female in the media.
I dig these Big Ben articles. Because…as always…..
BIG BEN LOVES HIM SOME UGLY WOMEN!!!
Woo Hoo!!! Superbowl QB, Multi-millionaire, NFL star…..and of course….
BIG BEN LOVES HIM SOME UGLY WOMEN!!!
Dunlap should fire back with his own Rule 11 motion. I don’t know how Ben’s attorneys can claim that this was a frivilous lawsuit with a straight face. Credible? Probably not. But frivilous? Ben’s attorneys are just abusing the system….
gameday and YouGuysAreIdiots both nailed it
Wow Gameday..Apparently you dont understand the civil courts.. You dont have to have one ounce of evidence ,all you have to do is put on a good story.Im personally glad Ben is fighting back.,I wish more men would..As a woman im sick n tired of other women going around accusing men of these acts when they havent occured.(altho they do occur but not always)Its sad tho all a woman has to do is say it happened and people run with it n deem the man guilty without a shred of evidence on the table.
All the emails n text messeges from this broad is a sure proof shes lying out her arse..Why should Ben or any man for that matter have to spend his money to prove his innocence when its laid upon the table for all to see. It very obvious this heffa wants someone to pay off her medical bills she incurred becus shes a pig.. was sleepin with a married man and had a fake affair on the internet..LOl isnt that proof in itself she isnt wrapped to tight??
Rule 11 Motions are no joke. Judges don’t take them lightly and this lawyer would not have filed one if there weren’t some basis for it. A motion for sanctions is a serious thing, and no decent attorney would file one just to scare someone, that’s just not the way things work.
@gameday… F THAT!
The moment this case gets to trial, Ben is guilty in the court of public opinion.
This attack on his golddigger accuser is the opposite of the Kobe defense. Whereas Kobe paid her off to make it go away, Ben is making sure that no one ever thinks this rape allegation is true. More power to him; she should go to jail along with the Duke stripper.
Attacking the lawyer is even better. Get to the root of the problem and Awesome Auger that shit. You’ll never be able to scare crazy women away from sexual harassment claims leading to big paydays, but you can probably scare lawyers off from taking BS cases.
I hope this ahole goes to jail. It’s ridiculous that he rapes a woman and then makes her life even more miserable by making her go through all this just to salvage some of his publicity
@ gameday:
I can see your point here, but if I were innocent, as I believe Ben is, I would be going at this as aggressively as possible in order to get it to go away as soon as possible. It’s becoming more and more obvious that this woman is not right in the head, and letting this go on any further risks major distraction during the season. It might be said, “Well, if he’s innocent, then where is the distraction,” but all it takes is worry over a meeting with the lawyers after practice to distract him from the practice. Remember that Ben’s the on-field general, so the things he has to remember are pretty detailed and important.
As far as Ben looking guilty for going after this “lady” and her lawyer, I think it makes him look more like he is a victim here. If I were being wrongly accused, I would feel the need to tighten the screws on the people who had targeted me when I had done nothing wrong (other than banging my twin – EW). I can’t speak for women on a potential jury, but I know that I would really want something done to this girl if she had the nerve to actually take things to this level, when I knew I had done nothing illegal (although it’s debatable what level having sex with THAT would be).
In a nutshell – I still think Ben is the victim of a gold digger. There are people all over this case who say she is a total loon – including another female. Apparently, she doesn’t know how to keep her mouth (or her legs) shut, and built Ben’s defense for him all the while. The very first odd fact came from her own statement where she said that after she was “raped”, she went to Ben’s bathroom to compose herself. I’ve never been raped, but I would NOT care to hang out in my rapist’s bathroom after the fact.
Ben: It’s still the pre-season and I don’t want this rape trial to drag on. Put the heat on.
Lawyers: We can’t shake her so we’ll go after the lawyer.
Ben: I want this over before game 1.
Desperate much?
?and quit trying to slander the female in the media.?
Excuse me, but the “female” had previously tried to slander the “male” in the media. He’s not allowed to fight back? She’s already been proven a liar in several aspects of the case.
I thought that sanctions could only be placed against countries. Sanctions are nothing to fear. Just ask Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong Il. Somewhere, the two of them are laughing. Does this make Ben Rothlisberger the new Barack Obama?
Florio:
“here, Roethlisberger alleges that…”
============================
Roethlisberger isn’t alleging anything, his lawyers are. Don’t attribute any of this to Ben when you know full well that he’s not the one doing these things.
Who is roethlisberger’s attorney? Dick Lebeau?
Ben loves him some women that look like a female version of Ben.
@ gameday
I completely disagree. What would you do if you were in Ben’s place and you believe that you are innocent?
You have two options, settle as quietly as possible or go all out proclaiming your innocense.
Ben, smartly has chosen the latter because by settling you basically say “I’m guilty!!!”
If I were Ben, I would be doing everything I could to get the word out that I’m not a rapist. I would be renting space in every newspaper in the country, coming on every radio/tv show talking about how innocent I am.
People who are falsely accused respond in anger. People who are accurately accused respond in settlement.
Dunlap is done!
Gameday
She accused the man of Rape without one shred of evidence and waited a year to do so. This woman deserves every thing she is getting for damaging this man’s reputation like this.
This woman should NEVER be allowed to bring a case like this to court. It should never get that far. She doesn’t deserve to have her voice heard. Every single FRIEND of her’s is saying this is a lie. Just look at all the emails. This is a gold digging w hore.
NOW THIS IS A GREAT COMMENT…..
gameday says:
August 25, 2009 10:25 PM
I at first tended to believe that this was just another golddigger. But the more that Big bens attorneys attack and attack, I am starting to lean my sympathy to the accusor. Back in the day, attacks on an alledged rape victim usually meant they would cower and fold. But more and more nowadays, victims hire attorneys like Gloria Allred to fight back. Cornwell is on the verge of turning sentiment against Big Ben and I think he should back off and try the case in court instead of using intimidation and threats.
Women on a possible jury are not going to look kindly on the tactics that the defendants lawyers are using, This will backfire, and I for one am getting sick of the attacks on the female. Try the damn case in court, and quit trying to slander the female in the media.
===============================
HOWEVER… ANOTHER WAY OF LOOKING AT IT IS….. ROBERT FROST’S ….. Way of looking at it.
“A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer. ”
–Robert Frost–
I Would Bet Ben Has a Better Lawyer.
to gameday
As a neutral observer, that might be the dumbest comment I have seen on this message board.
Gameday, I agree with you to a point. This could end up backfiring on Big Ben. But at the same time, Big Ben has the right to defend himself. Allegations like these can tarnish somebody’s reputation whether they are true or not, while the alleged victim has virtually nothing to lose if they are lying. If I found myself in a position like this, and was innocent, I would defend myself as aggressively as possible. That doesn’t mean I think Big Ben didn’t do it, but I can’t blame him for counterattacking. It would be hard to be patient if you were wrongly accused.
[quote=gameday]I at first tended to believe that this was just another golddigger. But the more that Big bens attorneys attack and attack, I am starting to lean my sympathy to the accusor.[/quote]
Oh give me a break! Ben was accused of RAPE. That’s an extremely serious accusation…and of course he is going to fight that to the teeth, particularly if he truly is innocent. Spare me your crap about sympathy for the accusor!! My god! Have you read through the pile of evidence that goes AGAINST her?? Tell me…..what evidence has her attorney yet produced that backs her claims?? NOTHING. Spare me your sympathy garbage. It’s ridiculous that you think someone being accused of rape should sit back and play nice. You friggen disgust me.
So Gameday your telling me that if you were falsly accused of somethng you wouldn’t do everything legally in your power to make it go away. See here is the problem because this woman put a sexual overtone on this civil suit, Ben’s reputation is scarred for life. No matter what happens. By taking this course of action and proving her to be what it looks like she is by the evidence and affidavits so far, he reduces that stigma but will never be rid of it. Yes they are harsh attacks but if/when this is proved to be a frivolous case aren’t the allegations this woman made against hiim just as harsh. The difference is her’s would have been proven to be untrue.
I actually though she was kinda cute.
gameday says:
“I at first tended to believe that this was just another golddigger. But the more that Big bens attorneys attack and attack, I am starting to lean my sympathy to the accusor. Back in the day, attacks on an alledged rape victim usually meant they would cower and fold. But more and more nowadays, victims hire attorneys like Gloria Allred to fight back. Cornwell is on the verge of turning sentiment against Big Ben and I think he should back off and try the case in court instead of using intimidation and threats.
Women on a possible jury are not going to look kindly on the tactics that the defendants lawyers are using, This will backfire, and I for one am getting sick of the attacks on the female. Try the damn case in court, and quit trying to slander the female in the media.”
It seems to me that women on a possible jury should be more upset about a woman making false accusations, thereby making it harder for women with legitimate claims. Also, if you can read you would realize Ben is not going after her, just her attorney. He has agreed to release her completely from any liability if she drops the claim.
As for the expert witnesses, when it comes to expert witnesses and psychological opinions its all BS. With enough money you can get someone to say it is normal for her to dress like a clown and sacrifice small animals. Now I am no expert, but I do have some commonsense and have been around a few rape victims. Not one of them has ever tried to establish a relationship with the rapist after the event. I feel sorry for this girl. I don’t think she is a gold digger, she is just batshit crazy. Her attorneys are the real problem.
gameday says:
August 25, 2009 10:25 PM
I at first tended to believe that this was just another golddigger. But the more that Big bens attorneys attack and attack, I am starting to lean my sympathy to the accusor. Back in the day, attacks on an alledged rape victim usually meant they would cower and fold. But more and more nowadays, victims hire attorneys like Gloria Allred to fight back. Cornwell is on the verge of turning sentiment against Big Ben and I think he should back off and try the case in court instead of using intimidation and threats.
Women on a possible jury are not going to look kindly on the tactics that the defendants lawyers are using, This will backfire, and I for one am getting sick of the attacks on the female. Try the damn case in court, and quit trying to slander the female in the media.
_____________________________
I disagree, and not just because I’m a Steeler fan. The accusation itself is so damaging and the stagecraft of when it was introduced invites this type of thing. If she’d have gone to the authorities immediately or not waited until the eve of the season when it would get the maximum amount of attention to file the suit I could possibly agree with you.
For a guy who has difficulty picking good help (see TV Repair, Riding Instructor, Dentist), I can only hope he let someone else pick his lawyer.
emoser says:
August 25, 2009 11:29 PM
I hope this ahole goes to jail. It’s ridiculous that he rapes a woman and then makes her life even more miserable by making her go through all this just to salvage some of his publicity
THIS IS EXACTLY HOW SOCIETY ACTS..NOT ONE SHRED OF EVIDENCE HAS BEEN GIVEN TO PROVE ANY OF THIS BUT YET THIS WACKO EMOSER ALREADY DEEMS BEN AS A RAPIST.. WHAT A WASTED CITIZEN YOU ARE.. YOU ARE THE PIGS WHO RUIN SOCIETY FOR ALL..LOL BEN ISNT MAKING ANYONE GO THRU ANYTHING..LOL N ITS OBVIOUS SHE DONT CARE ABOUT HER REPUTATION WHEN SHE WAS SLEEPING WITH A MARRIED MAN..LOL BUT YOU PROLLY DONT KNOW ABOUT THAT CUS ALL YOU ARE CONCERNED WITH IS SHE SAID BEN RAPED HER..LOL TELL ME HOW IS MONEY GONNA MAKE THE RAPE ANY BETTER?LOL THIS CHICK WANTS HER BILLS PAID.THA FACT YOU CANT SEE THAT WITH EVERYTHING ON THE TABLE IS APPALLING…AND PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE THE REASON BEN IS FIGHTING THIS CRAP ..MAKES ME MAD AS A TAXPAYER THAT MY TAX DOLLARS ARE WASTED ON THIS LYIN HO.
HAVE NONE OF YOU PEOPLE READ THE EVIDENCE AGAINST HER??? LOL IM THINKING ALL YOU HATERS ARE JUST JEALOUS OVER BENS 2 SUPERBOWL RINGS… PERHAPS A RAVEN FAN?
Those that think Ben is guilty, have you read any of the e-mails presented? If you did, and still feel that he is guilty and there isn’t a chance that he could be innocent, then you guys are just haters. Well, that or you guys are the ones bringing down the nation’s average intelligence.
Why would a woman who was allegedly raped by Ben say 2 days later to someone that she would date him? Doesn’t make sense. Granted, this is assuming that the e-mails are authentic. I seriously doubt that they were made up since that would be another law suit waiting to happen. She clearly has psycological issues and iirc she is in debt up to her eyeballs. Hmm.. let me see.. let me sue Ben who got a nice big fat contract…
It is women like this who make it harder for real victims to come forward because the fear that they are not going to be believed.
gameday said: “But the more that Big bens attorneys attack and attack, I am starting to lean my sympathy to the accusor.”
I hope you are never a juror.
Sympathy has no place here if she is lying.
Is she lying? I don’t know. Only two people do. But in order to feel sympathy for her, you have to be assuming she’s telling the truth, because nobody in their right mind would feel sympathy for someone who brought fraudulent rape charges against someone else.
Even though I think Ben’s lawyers are pushing too hard, they have produced some pretty strong evidence to bolster their client’s side of the story. To overlook the content of that just because they’re doing what a lot of lawyers do would be a terrible thing. In fact, juries are often explicitly instructed not to do that.
# gameday says: August 25, 2009 10:25 PM
I at first tended to believe that this was just another golddigger. But the more that Big bens attorneys attack and attack, I am starting to lean my sympathy to the accusor. This will backfire, and I for one am getting sick of the attacks on the female. Try the damn case in court, and quit trying to slander the female in the media.
_______________
Are you always this stupid, or just on Tuesdays?
Steelersrock all caps?
Were you yelling while u type that?
Goober your new glasses are on the way, I sent em fedex
No matter what the turn out of this case, I’m completely neutral at this point, some people will still condsider ben a rapist.
Hopefully it comes to a conclusion soon because I’m sure this would way on him during the season.
I do think gameday touched on a point, will any female jurors feel sympathy for the accuser since ben as attacked her, even though the attack might be warranted? That could make for this to get ”interesting”
And like the great Shaquille O’Neil told Kobe…
”Don’t be rapin people.”
@mborz
Well said.
These Steeler-haters only want him to go to jail because they are jealous of the six trophies that sit in Heinz Field.
Sympathy. Give me a break. What about Facts or Evidence?
Go Steelers and Big Ben!
To gameday and others with similar feelings:
You are morons and way off base. Ben was accused of something horrible, which has in fact currently damaged his reputation to some extent, and I would think in some way certainly impacts his focus on his profession.
Based on what has since come out by his attorneys (about the accuser’s texts, emails, and filings by other independent people, etc), it sure appears his accuser is lying.
Therefore, I would encourage Ben and his defense team to come out with all guns blazing. You, me or anyone else would do exactly the same thing in this situation.
I would assume Ben’s attorneys know what they are doing and have pretty strong evidence to support what they are saying. IMHO Ben is not guilty of rape based on what I have read that had been made public.
The woman and her attorney are out for money, plain and simple, and in the end if this keeps up, they will be PAYING money.
So get real please. You don’t have to be a Steeler fan to be honest about the information you have to consider in this matter. You do however have to have a small amount of brain cells.
Gotta agree with goober up above that Andrea McNulty looks kinda good, with that bright Mr. Ed smile.
gameday,
I wouldn’t accept anything less from a Pats fan, but are you really serious?
If a woman falsely accused you of rape, wouldn’t you fight with tooth and nail to dispute those claims??? Think about it. Every person that he meets from now on will know of this story and might judge him upon that, whether the claims are right or wrong. He might have a hard time actually meeting a woman and having her actually trust him because of all this mess. I would do everything Ben is doing to try and fight for my reputation.
Steeler4life,
It’s a possibility that they do feel sympathy. I think its a load of crap too, but you never know
Between all the distractions, vick, favre, ben, marshall, etc. And all the injuries, this seems like it might be a crazy season
The only thing sweeter than a rivals player in trouble is a sleazy lawyer in trouble.