As we patiently wait for the Steelers to bring the hammer down on Roethlisberger (or the feather duster, depending on the punishment), more and more details are coming out about the accuser in documents released by the police. The more of the story that comes out, the weirder it becomes, but now the D.A.’s press conference makes a lot more sense.
You can start to see that there is a lot pointing to Roethlisberger being guilty, but not enough to put it all together in a cohesive case – especially with an unstable accuser. The latest tidbits come from the PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW who have more details about that night and what is currently going on with the accuser:
Everyone seems to agree that the starting point for Roethlisberger’s infatuation with the young woman was at the Velvet Elvis tavern around midnight, when he noticed a tag she wore on her dress that suggested she was willing to engage in sexual intercourse.
At one point, according to the accuser’s friend Victoria Garofalo, the quarterback looked at the pin and said that he liked to “(expletive) girls.”
Although the young accuser first told Blash that she hadn’t been raped, once she sobered up her written statement said that Roethlisberger came at her with his genitals exposed.
“Ben asked us to go to his ‘VIP’ area. . . . We all went with him. He said there were shots for us, numerous shots were on the bar, and he told us to take them. His bodyguard came and took my arm and said come with me, he escorted me into a side door/hallway, and sat me on a stool. He left and Ben came back with his penis out of his pants. I told him it wasn’t OK, no, we don’t need to do this and I proceeded to get up and try to leave. I went to the first door I saw, which happened to be a bathroom. He followed me into the bathroom and shut the door behind him. I still said no, this is not OK, and he then had sex with me. He said it was OK. He then left without saying anything. I went out of the hallway/door to the side where I saw my friends. We left [the club] and went to the first police car we saw.”
The Tribune-Review doesn’t name the alleged victims of sexual abuse. Her attorney, Lee Parks, in a written statement said that she is seeking therapy because of the alleged incident.
It is a pretty vivid description. All the witness accounts that I have seen pretty much back the accuser.
You can read her entire statement to the police here courtesy of TMZ.com.
BEN ROETHLISBERGER’S ACCUSER STATEMENT
Her problem is that she was drunk and after a few weeks didn’t want to cooperate with the cops for reasons that are unknown at this time (Straight Cash Homie, perhaps?).
I think based off of everything that we know, Roethlisberger needs to be suspended at minimum eight games; anything less – considering how Pacman Jones was treated – would be unfair and biased. It would also raise a lot of questions as to if certain players are protected by the league.