Ben Roethlisberger’s Accuser

Unrelated photo of rape counselor advising a victim

When I watch the 20-year old college student talk about what happened the night she claims that she was raped by Ben Roethlisberger, I find it very strange how she remembers a fair amount of detail up until the moment she gets to the actual rape. It’s one thing to struggle to say the details, or to have a hard time with it, but I don’t see any of that with this victim. She is very matter-of-fact through the entire conversation.

Read moreShe says:

We were taking shots and one of his body guards came and like…like didn’t grab my arm, but like, was like, ‘hey come here’ and grabbed my arm, took me to this back, like, door, like this hallway. Um, he, um, took me back there and I was like, okay, and I like, really weird, how he did it. He was like ‘hey come here’ and I was ok.

I didn’t know what he was doing. It was really weird, but at the same time, I like ooohkay. I don’t…I don’t even know why I went. It was stupid, but went back there and he had me sit at this, um, stool, and then 30 seconds later Ben comes back there, his **** is already out of his pants, and I was like, no this is not right. Like, I don’t agree with this. I got up and I went to like the first door that I saw, which happened to be a bathroom, and um, he followed me in and shut the door. That’s when he proceeded to have sex with me, and the whole time I said no, we shouldn’t be doing this, um, and he got up and left, and um, I walked out, and that’s when we, when my friends walked up to me.

After the victim tells her story, the investigator asked her what position she was in when she was raped, and very strangely she doesn’t know. How can she not know that basic fact? That’s a red flag. If she was confused about other details, I might understand, but she seems to have a clear memory up until the critical point.

I wonder: If you can’t remember the position in which you were raped, how could you be sure you were then raped?

Interestingly, the Pittsburg-Tribune Review writes that in an interview that occurred the night of the alleged rape, the “…accuser initially told Milledgeville police that she wasn’t raped, according to the case file. But in an audio taped interview with Milledgeville Officer Jason Lopez shortly after the encounter, she claimed in a raspy, slurred voice that the quarterback raped her while she squatted on a toilet.”

One time she remembers being raped on the toilet (I can’t imagine) and in a later interview she can’t? This causes me concern.

How could she forget being raped on a toilet? Is that even possible to be raped on a toilet?

I believe someone could be traumatized and things could become foggy, but it would be consistently foggy, not only when talking about specific details. The woman didn’t hit me as shy or timid, either, which might account for getting brief where it matters most.

Interestingly enough, Ben Roethlisberger admitted to having sexual contact with the accuser. From the NYPost.com, “Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger reportedly told police he did have sexual contact with a woman accusing him of sexual assault, but it stopped short of full intercourse, the night of the Milledgeville, Ga., incident.

The Post-Gazette, however, reports of conversations with the police that are quite different from what we hear in the video above. It’s from an audio recording I have yet to find.

She said that she and Mr. Roethlisberger went into the restroom, a cramped space with a single commode.

“I was like, ‘Well, I need to go to the bathroom, let’s go to the bathroom.’ So I went to the bathroom,” she said.

“He was like, ‘OK, well, let’s have sex.’ And I was like, ‘Um, [unintelligible] a good idea.’… And he said, ‘No, it’s really OK, I have a lot of people here. It’s OK.’ He said, ‘Um, it’s really OK.’ And I said, “I really don’t think it’s OK.’ And he said, ‘No, it is.’ “

“And he just, like, started trying to have sex with me. So he had sex with me. I feel like it was three seconds, but I was drunk so I don’t really know.”

I am struck by several things in this version above, if it is truly from her. Does she take him to the bathroom with her? This is a very different account from the video we’ve seen where she says he followed her into the bathroom uninvited. Second, when someone is violated, it usually seems like an eternity, and yet she says it was like three seconds? That’s another huge red flag for me.

According to the Post-Gazette, that the prosecutor did not take the case because of insufficient DNA. They also write, “A hospital examination of the woman found a superficial laceration, bruising and slight bleeding in the genital area, but a doctor could not say whether they were evidence of an assault or sexual activity.”

Based on the facts of this case, and the behavior of the accuser, I think we can obviously say that something happened between Roethlisberger and her, that there was a sexual encounter, but I have serious concerns if she is being honest about the actual rape. Clearly, the woman is holding things back, and can’t remember facts. Some have suggested this is Rape Trauma Syndrome. Clearly, a rape expert needs to be called in to see if this accusers behavior fits within this syndrome. That’s about all I can say at this time…