ROETHLISBERGER'S STATEMENT & SOME THOUGHTS
Ben Roethlisberger read a prepared statement before the Pittsburgh press, but refused to answer any questions. The statement went as follows:
"I did not sexually assault Andrea McNulty. Saturday was the first I learned of her accusations. Her false & vicious accusations are an attack on my family & on me. I would never, ever force myself on a woman. I'm going to fight to protect my family & my reputation. I'm not going to discuss my private life or this civil case in the media. I'll respond to her outrageous allegations in the appropriate forum. I have an obligation to our fans, to my teammates, to my coaches & everyone in the organization to stay focused on the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I will do that. The allegations against me are reckless & false. As much as I'd like to answer everyone's questions, I'm going to respect the legal process. And I'm confident the truth will prevail."
Remember, I am a huge Roethlisberger fan, that said, I saw a couple of pretty big holes in his statement, especially since it's a slam dunk the statement was written by his lawyer, David Cornwell. It wasn't so much what he said, but what he didn't say. He didn't say he hadn't had sex with McNulty, he said he didn't sexually assault her & that he'd never, ever force himself on any woman. He didn't say she hadn't been in his suite. I can tell you there's not a guest room door in any hotel/casino in Nevada, that doesn't have a surveillance camera trained on it. Every single one of these cameras are time coded. When I was in the business, video tape was used, but now some surveillance video is stored on hard drives. Now how long they are kept is unknown to me. Video tapes from the casino floor, on slots & table games, was always kept for 6 months. But how long do they keep video from the rest of the property? If this video is intact & she did enter his room, how long Ms. McNulty was in his suite can be pinpointed to the second. I found some of the statement troubling.
The Washoe County District Attorney's office stated today they had no intention of opening a criminal investigation into Ms. McNulty's allegations. The fact that she never reported the alleged attack to police or visited a hospital within 24 hours to complete a rape kit is also troubling. Because of this, there is no crime scene, no forensics & no rape kit. What is left is 'he-said-she-said'. I don't find her to be very credible, especially the fact that she still works at Harrah's, whose executives are named in the lawsuit as conspiring to cover-up the crime.
The Reno Gazette said in today's issue, it will be about a year before a civil case can be brought into court. There may be a lot of legal wrangling in the meantime. Unless there is any breaking news regarding this lawsuit, I'm thru talking about it for a while except to add one thing, I watched Roethlisberger's statement live on ESPN, guess it wasn't beneath them after all huh?
"I did not sexually assault Andrea McNulty. Saturday was the first I learned of her accusations. Her false & vicious accusations are an attack on my family & on me. I would never, ever force myself on a woman. I'm going to fight to protect my family & my reputation. I'm not going to discuss my private life or this civil case in the media. I'll respond to her outrageous allegations in the appropriate forum. I have an obligation to our fans, to my teammates, to my coaches & everyone in the organization to stay focused on the Pittsburgh Steelers. And I will do that. The allegations against me are reckless & false. As much as I'd like to answer everyone's questions, I'm going to respect the legal process. And I'm confident the truth will prevail."
Remember, I am a huge Roethlisberger fan, that said, I saw a couple of pretty big holes in his statement, especially since it's a slam dunk the statement was written by his lawyer, David Cornwell. It wasn't so much what he said, but what he didn't say. He didn't say he hadn't had sex with McNulty, he said he didn't sexually assault her & that he'd never, ever force himself on any woman. He didn't say she hadn't been in his suite. I can tell you there's not a guest room door in any hotel/casino in Nevada, that doesn't have a surveillance camera trained on it. Every single one of these cameras are time coded. When I was in the business, video tape was used, but now some surveillance video is stored on hard drives. Now how long they are kept is unknown to me. Video tapes from the casino floor, on slots & table games, was always kept for 6 months. But how long do they keep video from the rest of the property? If this video is intact & she did enter his room, how long Ms. McNulty was in his suite can be pinpointed to the second. I found some of the statement troubling.
The Washoe County District Attorney's office stated today they had no intention of opening a criminal investigation into Ms. McNulty's allegations. The fact that she never reported the alleged attack to police or visited a hospital within 24 hours to complete a rape kit is also troubling. Because of this, there is no crime scene, no forensics & no rape kit. What is left is 'he-said-she-said'. I don't find her to be very credible, especially the fact that she still works at Harrah's, whose executives are named in the lawsuit as conspiring to cover-up the crime.
The Reno Gazette said in today's issue, it will be about a year before a civil case can be brought into court. There may be a lot of legal wrangling in the meantime. Unless there is any breaking news regarding this lawsuit, I'm thru talking about it for a while except to add one thing, I watched Roethlisberger's statement live on ESPN, guess it wasn't beneath them after all huh?
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