Good News On Ben

**BURGH86STEEL** · 08-08-2009, 06:00 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

Hopefully, this will be the end of this and Ben has learned something.

**Ozey74** · 08-08-2009, 07:16 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

This is great news!!!

**Scarletfire1970** · 08-08-2009, 07:45 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

This girl will now be crucified by the plaintiff's attorneys. Hopefully she has no skeletons in her closet.

**NorthCoast** · 08-08-2009, 08:25 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

Originally posted by Scarletfire1970

This girl will now be crucified by the plaintiff's attorneys. Hopefully she has no skeletons in her closet.

It wouldn't be beyond imagination that she was 'hired' for statement by the casino. Casinos in Vegas wield a lot of power, both legitimate and unlegitimate considering the clientele they have to deal with.

**Jooser** · 08-08-2009, 08:43 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

Here's a bit more on the story per PFT (just look over their commentary...)

[url="http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/08/08/big-ben-takes-the-gloves-off/"]http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... loves-off/[/url]

Roethlisberger takes the gloves off
Posted by Mike Florio on August 8, 2009 7:37 AM ET

Gregg Rosenthal pointed out on Friday that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has received additional time to formally respond to the civil allegations of sexual assault made against him by an employee of Harrah's hotel and casino in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

As a practical matter, however, Roethlisberger's legal team launched its first assault in the case on Friday. And while Roethlisberger has yet to concede that he had sexual relations with the plaintiff, it is now obvious that one of his primary arguments will be that the plaintiff intentionally has fabricated the notion that any exchange between them was not consensual.

Several readers have forwarded to us the link to an item at ESPN.com regarding an affidavit filed recently in the case. The affidavit (a written, sworn statement) was signed August 7 by a former co-worker of the plaintiff's at Harrah's hotel and casino.

The former co-worker is not one of the named defendants in the case, and the former co-worker no longer is employed by Harrah's.

The account at ESPN.com of the affidavit is fairly tame; the affidavit is characterized as stating that the plaintiff in the lawsuit didn't seem "upset, stressed out or nervous" about her interaction with Roethlisberger, that the plaintiff thought she might be pregnant as a result of her encounter with Roethlisberger, and that the plaintiff spoke after the event of traveling to Pittsburgh to possibly "run into" him.

But the full affidavit, a copy of which we have obtained, goes much, much farther than that.

For starters, the affidavit itself is, by all appearances, gratuitous at this juncture of the case. It was attached to a motion aimed at moving the case from Washoe County, Nevada, where one of the named defendants has a residence, 50 miles away to Douglas County, Nevada, where the plaintiff worked and where the incident allegedly occurred.

The assertions contained in the affidavit simply have no bearing on whether the case should be moved to Douglas County. And so the obvious reality is that the motion was used in part as a vehicle for providing more information to the court of public opinion, which for a high-profile athlete is a courtroom nearly as important as the one in which the case would eventually be tried.

Here's the stuff that caught our attention.

At paragraph 8, the affidavit states that the plaintiff "did not obtain the position through the standard process . . . with which I was familiar." For example, the co-worker claims that the plaintiff got the job without being interviewed for it. (In our view, that's intended to imply that the plaintiff obtained the job through non-traditional means. We'll leave it to the court of public opinion to speculate on what those might be.)

At paragraph 9, the co-worker explains that she served as a mentor to the plaintiff in the position of Casino Host, and that as a result the plaintiff confided in the co-worker regarding her personal life.

At paragraph 10, the co-worker opines that she would not have hired the plaintiff for the position of Casino Host, explaining that she "did not possess the necessary skills or attitude" and that she was not "professional, reliable or organized."

At paragraph 11, the co-worker makes the "Erin Brockovich" allegations against the plaintiff, a not-so-uncommon tactic in cases of this nature. Specifically, the co-worker alleges that the plaintiff "[o]n frequent occasions" was "wearing scantily clad and provocative clothing." (Relevance in a court of law? Little or none. Relevance in a court of public opinion? Significant.)

At paragraph 16, the co-worker says that the plaintiff told the co-worker in July 2008 that the plaintiff had "been with" Roethlisberger. "In observing her demeanor during this conversation," the co-worker alleges, Andrea did not appear to be upset, stressed-out or nervous." The co-worker instead claims that the plaintiff appeared to be "happy and boastful" about the encounter with him. The co-worker states that the plaintiff never indicated she was assaulted, or that the interaction was ever anything other than consensual.

At paragraph 17, the co-worker states that the plaintiff indicated that she thought she might be pregnant by Roethlisberger, and that the plaintiff never later indicated that she actually was.

At paragraph 18, the co-worker discusses the plaintiff's suggestion that she would travel to Pittsburgh to try to "run into" Roethlisberger. In the next paragraph, the co-worker alleges that the plaintiff tried in August 2008 to obtain Roethlisberger's phone number through Harrah's resources. The co-worker says that she declined to assist the plaintiff in this effort.

In paragraph 20, the co-worker states -- for no apparent reason -- that the plaintiff had said she had dated a baseball player who "had a lot of money."

Paragraphs 21 through 27 address the issue of the fictitious soldier, fabricated by the wife of a woman with whom the plaintiff allegedly was involved. The point of these allegations is to demonstrate that any significant mental distress that the plaintiff experienced arose not from the plaintiff's interactions with Roethlisberger, but from the notion that she learned she had "fallen in love" with a man who, as it turned out, did not exist.

The last five paragraphs are, in our regard, the most important, from the standpoint of the looming legal battle.

At paragraph 28, the co-worker claims that, in March 2009, the plaintiff said that she planned to sue Harrah's. The plaintiff allegedly said that the case would be "big news," and the plaintiff allegedly asked "leading questions" like, "Isn't it true that Harrah's mistreated you?"

At paragraph 30, the co-worker explains that she heard about the lawsuit on or about July 21, 2009, while driving home from work and listening to the radio. At paragraph 31, the co-worker says this: "When I heard the radio report, I immediately knew that [the plaintiff] . . . was making these false allegations against Mr. Roethlisberger. I was absolutely shocked because I knew [the plaintiff's] allegation that Ben Roethlisberger raped her was false. Because I knew that [the plaintiff's] lawsuit and false allegations would unfairly and unjustly hurt Mr. Roethlisberger, I wanted to set the record straight."

Wow.

Moving forward, the former co-worker will be a very important witness in the case. What once appeared to be a he said/she said exchange will now potentially be influenced dramatically by the extent to which the former co-worker is a persuasive and credible witness while testifying.

The fact that the former co-worker has reduced so much of her story to writing at this point actually will make it easier for the plaintiff's lawyer to engage in thorough questioning of the co-worker. Indeed, one of the significant lines of examination will undoubtedly be whether and to what extent the co-worker prepared the affidavit herself -- and whether and to what extent it was prepared by the lawyers representing Roethlisberger.

Regardless, the affidavit proves that Roethlisberger plans to fight this thing aggressively. And if the co-worker's affidavit is accurate, Roethlisberger most likely will prevail.

They are right about one thing, it's no longer he-said, she-said IMHO.

**Scarletfire1970** · 08-08-2009, 09:01 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

I wish we had access to the entire affidavit. PFT actually reported alot more info than some other sources.

**papillon** · 08-08-2009, 09:05 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

I won't consider it good news until the case is dropped, settled or won. The co-worker that stepped forward has opened up a can of worms on himself/herself if McNutty's lawyer wants to play hardball.

Pappy

**stlrz d** · 08-08-2009, 09:28 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

She's a wacko...outstanding news!!!

**anger 82&95** · 08-08-2009, 09:39 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

Thanks for the important update!

**frankthetank1** · 08-08-2009, 10:21 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

well this should be the begaining of the end of this mess. very good news!!!

**phillyesq** · 08-08-2009, 10:21 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

Very interesting. Florio is right that this affidavit has no place in a motion to change venue, and that it was filed purely to influence public opinion. This exculpatory evidence is certainly helpful to Ben, but there are some credibility issues with the signor of the affidavit that will need to be explored. If she is a current employee of Harrah's, that opens her to at least the appearance of bias.

This affidavit certainly shows that the Defendants are going all out, and that defense counsel (and their agents) are leaving no stone unturned in investigating the case, but based on the affidavit alone, Ben isn't out of the woods yet.

**Mister Pittsburgh** · 08-08-2009, 10:26 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

Ben should counter sue for defamation of character. If he would win, and she were to pay some sum of money, and couldn't pay it, wouldn't she then have to do jail time or something? I think this crazy bitch got in the hole with money and saw Ben as a way out. If you were truly raped by someone, would you seek like 490 thousand dollars from a QB with a 100 million dollar contract or would you go after everything you could get? I mean if this dude held you down and raped you, wouldn't you go after everything?

**RuthlessBurgher** · 08-08-2009, 10:28 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

Originally posted by phillyesq

If she is a current employee of Harrah's, that opens her to at least the appearance of bias.

It says in the PFT article:

The former co-worker is not one of the named defendants in the case, and the former co-worker no longer is employed by Harrah's.

**frankthetank1** · 08-08-2009, 10:32 AM

Re: Good News On Ben

Originally posted by Mister Pittsburgh

Ben should counter sue for defamation of character. If he would win, and she were to pay some sum of money, and couldn't pay it, wouldn't she then have to do jail time or something? I think this crazy bitch got in the hole with money and saw Ben as a way out. If you were truly raped by someone, would you seek like 490 thousand dollars from a QB with a 100 million dollar contract or would you go after everything you could get? I mean if this dude held you down and raped you, wouldn't you go after everything?

you would try to get everything i think.she would have ran to the police right away and file a lawsuit. not wait a year and not go to the police at all. its so stupid and it shouldnt even continue. rape is just about as serious of an allegation to make. if a girl is raped why wouldnt she go to the police immediately? ben shouldnt sue, just let it die and go away. he doesnt need any revenge or anything, im sure that wont make him feel any better. the best thing for ben would be to put this behind him

Good News On Ben

Good News On Ben

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