Ben Roethlisberger: Why What Really Happened in Milledgeville Might Never Be Known

By: dwil

BenRoethlisberTMZWhile some websites are “claiming” Ben Roethlisberger talked to police about having sexual contact with the 20-year old college student, there is another, much more important matter at hand which was revealed in the investigation.

And it might be the reason there is so much confusion surrounding the events of the evening in question.

It turns out that two off-duty policemen attended Roethlisberger’s back room party at Capital City, a club in Milledgeville, Georgia.

The policemen, according to Associated Press reports were from Pennsylvania:

Anthony Barravecchio, an officer on the force in the Pittsburgh suburb of Coraopolis, and Pennsylvania Trooper Ed Joyner were among about eight people with Roethlisberger celebrating his birthday at the club, attorney Michael Santicola said. Santicola said the men were there because they are friends of the two-time Super Bowl winner.

So that is the secret to Ben Roethlisberger.

Andrea McNulty went to the hospital and reported a sexual assault by Ben Roethlisberger but did not go to the police. She feared recrimination from her employers at Harrah’s Hotel who were fact friends of Roethlisberger ———– and the police.

Did it all begin with the police at Miami (Ohio) for Roethlisberger? When the University of Colorado’s football program was dismantled by the NCAA during both Gray Barnett’s and Rick Neuheisel’s tenures it was found that local Boulder police often shielded players from harm and possible criminal charges. Boulder’s finest often posted up outside of hotels playing informal watchdogs while the players and recruits partied with willing CU co-eds. It was this atmosphere in which female kicker Katie Hnida was raped in 2004 and at least 10 other women were raped by Buffaloes players.

Ben Roethlisber was a record-breaking quarterback at Miami and a surefire pro prospect. Perhaps Roethlisberger learned as a Red Hawks that the best way to keep trouble with women at arms length was to have the police squarely in his corner. So, it would follow that the quarterback would feign innocence of any sexual misconduct when friends in his posse are policemen. Roethlisberger can rely on his cop buddies to act as the ultimate trustworthy witnesses and corroborate any story might tell.

And they have:

“They saw nothing inappropriate, no criminal activity and no inappropriate contact or behavior,” Santicola said, adding that Barravecchio was “completely sober” during the evening.

Santicola also said the two do not remember meeting the woman who has accused Roethlisberger of assault.

“If they did meet the woman, they have no memory of it,” Santicola said. “This was a crowded bar with people everywhere.”

While Roethlisberger told the police he had consensual sexual contact with the 20-year old woman. Roethlisberger’s story will now be the one that the police will use when comparing the evidence gathered from witnesses. Additionally, the police want DNA from Roethlisberger and his lawyers have refused to comply.

Meantime, the young woman who made the allegation against Roethlisberger has left Georgia College:

Attorneys for the woman who accuses Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of sexual assault said that she did the right thing by going to police and asked for privacy in a statement Tuesday.

Atlanta-based Attorneys Lee Parks and David Walbert said in the statement released to several media outlets that woman is assisting police. They said they were hired to advise the woman and her family while police investigate the allegations.

The 20-year-old told police that the two-time Super Bowl winner, who had been out barhopping with friends, assaulted her early Friday at a nightclub in Milledgeville, Ga. Roethlisberger has not been charged.

“Their daughter has done the right thing and reported this matter to the police,” reads the statement released by the attorneys’ Atlanta law firm, Parks, Chesin & Walbert. “She has been, and will be, available to the authorities to assist them in the criminal investigation. While the matter is under investigation, we ask you to respect her privacy, keep her name out of the press and allow the family space and time to heal.”

———————–

The bind here for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is how to navigate the situation. Because of the NFL Conduct Code, Goodell is bound by his own mandate to bring Roethlisberger into the league office for a conversation. If we follow the example set by his dealing with Michael Vick, Goodell must allow the Steelers QB to come into his office and tell his side of the story as did Vick. Remember, part of Vick’s stiff suspension, according the the commissioner, was because Goodell said Vick had an opportunity to come into his office and tell the truth but the now-Eagles quarterback chose to lie. When the investigation turned up “evidence” of Vick’s guilt and Vick subsequently pleaded guilty to charges, Goodell felt betrayed by Vick.

Ben Roethlisberger deserves the opportunity to come into Roger Goodell’s office and lie to the commissioner just as did Michael Vick.

However, the thorny side of this issue for Goodell is his statement made on ESPN that players deserve to be protected and defended by the league when they are found to be innocent of charges or when they are falsely charged, just as they are to be punished when they are found to be guilty of police charges. Unfortunately for Goodell, defending the players entails criticizing police.

When is was found that the Austin, Texas police falsely accused Cincinnati Bengals running back Cedric Benson of all manners of boating charges, including being drunk on his own boat and endangering other boaters and resisting arrest, Goodell said nothing. There were no harsh critiques of the police emanating from the league office. There was no public statement made in favor of Cedric Benson – not by Goodell, not by any NFL team. In fact, the charges against Benson were the pretext for the Chicago Bears to rid themselves of a running back they felt was an underachiever.

For Goodell to openly defend a player he must face down the Fraternal Order of Police, a national organization of which every active policeman is a member. This is one of the most powerful groups in the U.S., and when they perceive a slight against one of theirs, they move as one and throw the weight of every police person in the country behind their cause. We have seen this with anyone who feels former Black Panther and now inmate for life Mumia Abu-Jamaal is innocent of killing a police officer over two decades ago in Philadelphia. One of the groups primary in his defense was the M.O.V.E. organization, a local Philadelphia group that ascribed to – simply put – personal autonomy and unabated growth for Black people.

The apartment that housed the M.O.V.E. members, children, women, and men, was riddle with bullets and literally bombed in the middle of the city of Philadelphia. The police took out an entire neighborhood of mainly working class Black and White people and wantonly killed every M.O.V.E. member they could. The scene was reminiscent of the later Waco incident ————- except the act was performed in the heart of an urban metropolis.

Can Goodell ever openly defend an athlete who is falsely accused of police charges? No. Acting to defend an NFL player against the police would be seen as a treasonous act by the FOP. And their first act would be to call for their charges to boycott NFL games and they would privately threaten Goodell with either pulling back on their services at NFL games or threaten to arrest every attendee of an NFL game they could with DUI.

Goodell would be forced to relent.

That is the protection Ben Roethlisberger bought when he called – most likely paid their airline tickets – his police buddies from Pennsylvania to Georgia. They were at the club, they might have been active participants in illegal acts with college-age and underage women such as Roethlisberger’s accuser, but we’ll never know.

And because of their presence, we might never know the truth behind what is most likely sexual assault by Ben Roethlisberger. The only question now is, does Ben Roethlisberger feel he is bullet-proof enough to one day overstep his – perceived by the league and the press – privilege of being an NFL player and rape a woman without police friends covering for him, so as to elucidate all his prior mal-acts toward women?

Only time will tell.

Meantime, another woman has, to some degree, been irreparably damaged by Roethlisberger. And she might be one of any number of college-aged and older women Roethlisberger has raped or sexually assaulted. Exactly how many women, sadly, we may never know.

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4 Comments

  1. What are you talking about. So you want to defend this boys alleged actions by bringing up Michael Vick, Cedric Benson, Black Panthers and Move. Something real wrong with this picture. You must really be lost to try to tie in the FOP to a single case in Georgia, just because two officers, off duty and out of their juristiction where in the club, but not in the bathroom. Why don’t you just stand up straight and say it! He is a white, male, NFL QB and that little old Georgia gal’s accusation ain’t worth ah hill of beans.

    Comment by uzza on March 11, 2010

  2. didn’t this happen in midgeville Pa?

    Comment by commenter on March 16, 2010

  3. Although there is no proof as of yet that anything happened at all the allegations were made in milledgeville, ga.

    Comment by wizard on March 31, 2010

  4. So she decided not to press charges because of what? How about the DTF sign she had on.

    I’d like your interpretation of that. Actually I’d like to hear her presentation of that in court. Oh wait she decided not to go to court. Maybe you can figure this out for us.

    Oh well writers have to earn a living too.

    Comment by E Hassick on May 13, 2010

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