Cornwell responds to withdrawal of Nevada settlement offer
Posted by Mike Florio on April 23, 2010 11:54 AM ET
Attorney Calvin R. X. Dunlap recently said that the settlement offer previously made in the Nevada sexual assault suit pending against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been withdrawn.

"The deadline for that has passed," Dunlap told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Roethlisberger lawyer David Cornwell begs to differ. "Under basic contract law, [Dunlap's] 'settlement offer' was extinguished when we rejected it as soon as it was made," Cornwell told us via e-mail on Thursday. "[He] is scrambling for a way to dig himself out of the hole created by his client's words and bizarre conduct, which establish that she planned to seduce Ben, bragged about her conquest afterwards, and that she appears to have concocted her false allegations to save her job."

The real message seems to be that Roethlisberger hasn't decided to cave in the wake of his misadventures in Milledgeville. As we've pointed out in the past, Roethlisberger's defense to the Nevada charges looks to be very, very strong.

Besides, the prior offer made by Dunlap was nothing more than a P.R. ploy. No party settles civil litigation by admitting to the conduct for which the party was sued. One of the benefits of settlement is that the agreement expressly states that the settling party denies all wrongdoing.
As tired as I am of hearing about Ben's legal misadventures, I really like Cornwell's approach.