Comments on: SportingNews.com: Roethlisberger decision hints at possible settlement

By: HoneyB

HoneyB — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:48:14 +0000

People should realize that it can also be considered rape when a person is too drunk to consent to sex and the DA mentioned several times that this girl was highly intoxicated. So what Ben did still doesn’t make it right. Stop trying to come up with all types of excuses for the creep.

By: Deb

Deb — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:26:53 +0000

@Ollie …
Thanks so much for the positive feedback!

By: Deb

Deb — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:22:40 +0000

@Ravenmaniac …
Please either listen to the entire press conference or stop commenting. It’s frustrating to hear you continuing to put out inaccurate information.
While the DA’s opening did make it sound as though the bodyguard led the woman into an ambush, he completely changed that story later in the press conference when asked for clarification by one of the reporters.
He said the girl had to go to the bathroom and asked the bodyguard to show her where it was. The bodyguard escorted her to the bathroom and came back. He didn’t stay. He didn’t guard the hallway. He didn’t know Ben went back there. According to the woman’s statement to police, the incident with Ben began in the hallway–so she must have been on her way back–then they went into the bathroom.
One of the woman’s sorority sisters had been ejected from the VIP room by Ben, though no one is sure why. The sorority sisters were also very drunk. The bodyguard was stationed outside the VIP room. The sorority sister says she told him her friend was too drunk to be back there, but he didn’t respond. The club owner said a couple of sorority girls told him their friend was too drunk to be back there, and he showed them another way around where they could go and check on her. But he said they didn’t go.
That’s the story the DA told later in the press conference. He also said that after interviewing everyone who was in the club, the woman was only in the bathroom for approximately 10 minutes.
————
@Apetits …
I’m just going by what the DA said. No, I do not believe the hospital skewed the results of a rape kit because Roethlisberger was involved. When first asked, the girl said she was not raped and then said she wasn’t sure she’d had sex. There was trace bleeding, which could have been caused by other activity.
I’m not condoning Roethlisberger’s behavior. I think he’s an ass. And I think it’s wrong to keep saying this woman was paid off with no proof to support that. I agree with the DA–a lot of drinking and a lot of things got out of hand with plenty of blame to go around.

By: Rafterman

Rafterman — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:22:09 +0000

I tried to tell you imbeciles weeks ago that this was how is was going to go down, NO CHARGES WOULD BE FILED. I said repeatedly after week three of this fiasco that they didn’t have the evidence to pursue charges, and this was going NO WHERE. I knew it would have little effect on the blind hatred and delusional thinking of most of the morons posting here. However, I do enjoy telling you; I TOLD YOU SO.
In that vein let me explain something else. Ben is and will be the Steeler QB until he can’t physically perform anymore. Art is not going to trade him, PERIOD.
Feel free to continue your delusional rants and raves but realize they have no affect at all.
ROFLMAO!

By: Deb

Deb — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:11:53 +0000

By: Deb

Deb — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:02:22 +0000

@TFBuckFutter …
One of the problems here is that ESPN and the NFL Network in their infinite irresponsibility cut off the press conference after the first 16 minutes. It lasted 71 minutes. If you’d listened to the ENTIRE press conference, you’d have heard some enlightening information regarding your points:
1) You don’t need penetration for sexual assault
No, but you do need penetration for rape. The DA said clearly that the allegation was rape. They were investigating rape, not sexual assault, not sexual battery, not anything else. He repeated that several times.
2) He admitted to having contact
NO, he DID NOT admit to having ANY sexual contact with the girl. The DA stressed this point, saying the press reports were in ERROR.
3) She was drunk which negates her ability to consent, ergo it was not consensual.
Yes, legally speaking. But since he didn’t admit to having any sexual contact, the point is moot.
The DA went on to say that they were engaged in highly sexualized conduct and conversation. That when first asked if she was raped, she said NO. When first asked if they’d had sex, she said she wasn’t sure. The rape kit found no evidence that she’d had sex.
I still maintain that if a woman willingly gets drunk, willingly becomes engaged in highly sexualized behavior with a man, and willingly begins making out with him THEN decides later she regrets it, that is not rape in the true sense of the word. I know the law disagrees.
Ben is a scuzzy guy. I’m not defending his behavior. The DA’s last line: I prosecute crime, not sin.
Sorry I called you a prick. Try not to use that language. I get very heated when people unjustly insult the South. Living here and being a Southerner are two different things. I have a friend who is one of Bright’s ADAs. He’s an amazing, intelligent, ethical, cool person. This has been handled much more responsibly than the debacle that was the Simpson trial in oh-so-cosmopolitan L.A.

By: CT Stiller

CT Stiller — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:53:04 +0000

Apetits says:
“Which part of the unsavory behavior resulted in her bleeding vagina, Deb? Guess her Aunt Flo was just visiting, right?”
So, in your opinion, the hospital scene went something like this:
Officer: “So? Do you think she was actually raped?”
Doctor: “Absolutely. There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Officer: “But you know it was Ben Roethlisberger who did it, right?”
Doctor: “NO! THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING! She’s fine, no evidence of anything at all. So, is he here in the hospital?”
Yeah that sounds plausible. An emergency room doctor is going to tell police a 20 year old girl was not raped when she actually was….because the accused is an NFL QB.
Use your heads. You people want him to be guilty so badly that you just make up crap in your head. Not unlike your fearless leader, Florio, the failed attorney.

By: runtheball

runtheball — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 10:07:10 +0000

She was so dunk she doesn’t know what happened. They can’t even prove her and Ben were in the bathroom together. He didn’t pay her off. You pay someone off when the evidence is there to find you guilty. It doesn’t hint at a settlement it hints at a girl who knows whatever occurred if anything was largely of her own doing and it is not right to drag someone through the mud. It sounds like the whole thing was a creation of her sorority sisters. She may have ahd sex with someone else earlier in the day and did want those details out there, not to mention the skeletons of the sorority. The attorney carefully worded the letter to the DA, so the DA can not come back and file charges against her for making a false report.

By: Banjaxed

Banjaxed — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:03:38 +0000

I am always a bit nervous visiting Pittsburgh

By: Bdrunk

Bdrunk — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:56:02 +0000

MSWRavens says:
April 12, 2010 7:58 PM
“As a lawyer who handles civil cases..”
==================
LOL!
Long story short, Ben will be available to play for at least some of the season. Most likely for the Steelers. The crying of “FOUL!” by all of the armchair lawyers, NFL rivals, interweb trolls and “angry fathers” will not change that.

By: Apetits

Apetits — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:39:55 +0000

@Deb:
Your posts get more delusional and repulsive by the minute:
“Now why don’t you grow up and get your facts straight. Both these people engaged in some unsavory behavior. But calling it rape is a slap in the face to women who really have been raped and don’t have to think twice to be sure of it.”
Which part of the unsavory behavior resulted in her bleeding vagina, Deb? Guess her Aunt Flo was just visiting, right?
The only justice to come out of this (other than the large check that he surely wrote) is the absolute certainty that this idiot will do it again. But then I guess women are always crying rape against famous athletes, right? Who was that other guy that had it happen to him twice in a year….? Oh, wait – just Ben.
With idiots like you more interested in what he means to the team you root for than in making sure he’s held to same minimal standards of behavior that the rest of us are, its no wonder he thinks he can do whatever the hell he wants and get away with it.

By: AllThat

AllThat — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:10:30 +0000

“There was no hard evidence”…..
Sounds like Big Ben couldn”t get Lil Ben to do anything so he whacked her in the head with his limp biscuit .
What a tool.

By: Ollie

Ollie — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:07:29 +0000

Deb..
I just have to say that your post makes so much more since than anyone posting on here. You speak with the facts and I am in your camp and your way of thinking.

By: Outlaw Jersey Whales

Outlaw Jersey Whales — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:40:19 +0000

(Roethlisberger statement)
“Ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon. Thank you for coming. I would like to say that I am very sorry for all the trouble this incident has caused me. If I hadn’t been caught, I’d be back at the Capital City club tonight with a wild, coed stuffed t-shirt in my lap while taking body-shots off another! But, alas, I WAS caught in the VIP crapper attempting to polish Little Ben’s helmet, so now I must undo all the heartache this has caused me.
I have an addiction problem. I am addicted to pickled, 20 year old Snappin’ Gyro! Upon leaving this press conference I shall be seeking intensive treatment for my disease. Part of this therapy is being weaned off the addictive substance. Therefore i shall be persuing that first portion of my regimen at the UGA Alpha Omega Sorority Friday Night Gin and Ecstacy Bender / Hot Tub Skinny-Dipping Party.
I would appreciate that you respect my privacy at this time as I am undergoing treatment. I wouldn’t want to stroke another big check so soon. It would be very troubling to me.
Oh, I almost forgot. Sorry to the team, fans, the… well, you know the drill.
Thank you very much”

By: GirthyOne

GirthyOne — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:36:14 +0000

More haters.
It appears to me the girl sobered up and realized that in her drunken stupor she did something so many college kids have done. Worse, she said things that weren’t true because she probably didn’t want people knowing that she and Ben got it on, because they both like to fool around.
No way that any normal parent would allow settling a case if their daughter had been assaulted. None.
Maybe all you haters should go crawl back under your rocks.

By: CincyBowling

CincyBowling — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 04:37:25 +0000

WTF Ever…. The Guy Did It…. He Paid Her Off…… He Got Away With It….. Enuff Said… Money Wins!!!!!!!! Goodell finds out he paid her off, get rid of this peice of crap!!!!!!!!

By: SamHayne

SamHayne — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 03:46:44 +0000

or maybe, just maybe, this chick who shouldn’;t have been in a bar in the 1st place is lying about what happened & the DA didn’t have a case to pursue…..

By: Siggy00

Siggy00 — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:55:36 +0000

“In my honest opinion, we don’t even have probable cause,” said Wilkinson County District Attorney Fred Bright.

By: southernboi727

southernboi727 — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:44:58 +0000

Big Ben is just a poor mans Bachelor Tiger Woods! (I thought of that myself!)

By: southernboi727

southernboi727 — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:42:23 +0000

Must be nice to be famous. If this was some 25 year college guy, dude would be in jail. The female in the case probably thought about how the girl in the Kobe trial got treated and lost her case and was like “let me take the most reasonable offer on the table for just another night of being a promiscuous 20 year old.” Must be nice to be a female! Just sayin…..

By: oyoy84

oyoy84 — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:04:49 +0000

douchebag player and douchebag fans… a perfect match

By: Ravenmaniac

Ravenmaniac — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:47:09 +0000

Captain…I dont know if Rays was a payoff or not…
But I did hear the DA say he could have went after ben for giving an underage girl drinks but with her not wanting to testify……that tells me it is bens responsibility…he knew he was getting her wasted and he knew what he was going to do….it just looked better with his possee “escorting” her to the bathroom…..

By: CT Stiller

CT Stiller — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:26:21 +0000

“The manner in which the Ben Roethlisberger case in Georgia resolved invites speculation that he confidentially reached a settlement with the alleged victim, and that she agreed to request that the charges be dropped.”
Don’t bother clicking on the link to the article as there is neither substance nor proof of this latest conspiracy theory by a seemingly normal human being gone bad.

By: Deb

Deb — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:26:16 +0000

kpweaver27 says:
April 12, 2010 10:39 PM
95% of you don’t know the terrible details of what happened. The entourage blocking off the backroom…the tapes mysteriously being taped over just under 24 hours after the incident
——————————————–
DID YOU LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE PRESS CONFERENCE???????????
No. Obviously not.
I’m listening to it for the second time now.
The DA, later in the press conference, emended his earlier statement and made clear that the bodyguard DID NOT block the doorway. He said the owner of the club showed her sorority sisters how to get to the bathroom to check on her and they didn’t bother to go. The DA said there was a lot of drinking and socializing and a lot of sexual conversation between her and Ben.
He said afterward the sorority sisters dragged her to the cop and started babbling–she didn’t say anything. The cop asked her if she’d been raped. She said NO. He asked her if she’d had sex. She said she didn’t know. He sent her to the hospital. They could not find evidence that she’d had intercourse.
All that is in the press conference. Try listening to it.
Later, after she’d sobered up, she went to the police station and said they’d had sex but she told him no.
He said he hoped she’d learned a lesson. He said she and her sorority sisters were drinking too much. He said there was plenty of blame to go around and he hoped they all learned something.
Prosecutors who think rapists are getting away do not tell the “rapists” to grow up but you’re welcome back here anytime as long as you keep your nose clean–which is what this guy said about Ben. He clearly thinks Ben is an ASS. And I agree. But he also thinks she screwed up.
Now why don’t you grow up and get your facts straight. Both these people engaged in some unsavory behavior. But calling it rape is a slap in the face to women who really have been raped and don’t have to think twice to be sure of it.

By: DaveM

DaveM — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:16:27 +0000

How could “charges be dropped” if they were never filed?
The horrible reporting on this story continues.

By: Ravenmaniac

Ravenmaniac — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:15:27 +0000

Deb…when did I say she settled with him??? I was using DanRooneys words to find out if he actually thought that all rape victims want/do press charges. I think there are a lot of women that do not for the same reason this girl stated in her letter.

By: robert ethan

robert ethan — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:05:22 +0000

I think Bright just confirmed what you knew all along. Everyone in the scenario were guilty of being stupid and selfish to some degree. The girl paid a price, Ben paid a price. The ones who haven’t paid a price yet are the cops and the club.
Blasi, the sargeant looking starstruck in the “Big Boar and the 6 Fat Pigs” photos, called her a slut when he was inteviewing Ruthless and declined to write his new pals name on the complaint sheet. Desk duty for the corrupt little cretin, and hopefully more. What about the Pittsburgh cops with their heads up Ruthless ass half the year? Was one of them the gentleman who escorted her to the shitter to be sodomized? Or guarded the door while a drunk co-ed was being used like a blow up sex toy.
Nail those pricks, I say. They get paid to uphold the law not enable victimization.

By: iusedtobeteddybayer

iusedtobeteddybayer — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:58:23 +0000

@handsofsweed:
No, Florio is like “JT the Brick”, a caller who gets his own show. With a non-functioning Juris Doctorate.
Midget Florio.

By: TFBuckFutter

TFBuckFutter — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:58:17 +0000

“ItalianArmyGuy says:
April 12, 2010 10:43 PM
@BuckFutter – that’s why they did a rape kit at the hospital, and the docs reported to the DA that they couldn’t even tell if she had had sex, and they only found a very small trace of male DNA that couldn’t be matched with anyone. The fact that she was extremely intoxicated, and that there was no clinical verification of sexual assault, meant that the DA could not proceed. Watch the video of the press conference – it’s all laid out in English.”
But as I laid out, he admitted to having sexual contact with someone who was, for all intents and pruposes, incapacited thus unable to legally consent to the action.
If she says she was assaulted, because she wasn’t interested in the contact once she sobered up, she was assaulted because it’s something she wouldn’t have consented to were her consent not compromised. http://teenadvice.about.com/od/daterape/a/daterapeguysfyi_2.htm just a brief and basic synopsis, as well as some pretty good advice.

By: TFBuckFutter

TFBuckFutter — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:54:27 +0000

“Deb says:
April 12, 2010 9:41 PM
@TFBuckFutter …
I’m glad you’re so knowledgeable about the South, you ignorant, bigoted prick.
They have the same laws in the South concerning the inability to consent.
But to prove rape, you still have to prove penetration. If you listened to the press conference, the DA said he had to prove three things to prove rape:
1. penetration
2. that he did it
3. that it was not consensual”
I live in the South. I’m very aware of how things work.
1) You don’t need penetration for sexual assault
2) He admitted to having contact
3) She was drunk which negates her ability to consent, ergo it was not consensual.
“And speaking as a rape survivor now: Women are responsible for their bodies. If you choose to drink yourself into oblivion, you are responsible for the consequences of that choice. Women who drink themselves blotto and climb all over a man or let him climb all over them, then call it rape because they were too drunk to consent have no idea what rape is. ”
As I mentioned before, this law also applies to contract. I.e. if we get drunk and I sell you my house for $10, it can be voided because of my state even if I initiate it.
While I agree that women (and everyone) are responsible for their bodies and their own safety, that doesn’t mean if they choose to compromise their safety, it gives anyone who comes along the right to do whatever they want.
If you get drunk and pass out at a party, and someone steals your wallet, is it your fault? Partially. Is it still a crime? Yup.