After several days of intriguing developments in the civil suit against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, lawyer David Cornwell has issued a statement in response to recent court filings made by his accuser.
The full text of the statement is right here.
Cornwell deals with the recent news of a hollow settlement offer to drop the case in exchange for a settlement offer by disclosing that a very different offer had been made in July -- a demand for payment in the amount of $2.8 million.
And it’s now abundantly clear that Roethlisberger’s lawyers plan to go after the accuser’s attorney, Calvin Dunlap. “Given her admitted and obviously unstable mental state and the possibility that she is being manipulated by an unscrupulous lawyer,” Cornwell says, “we remain willing to give [the accuser] a limited benefit of the doubt (relating to her motivations only because her allegations are demonstrably false). Her lawyer, however, does not deserve and will not receive similar consideration.”
Bottom line? Even if the case is dropped today, it looks like Roethlisberger’s lawyers plan to pursue Dunlap through all means available.
This means that, as a practical matter, the accuser and her lawyer will be digging in their heels and fighting, until the bitter end.