I typed this up as a comment on another site to someone saying that Ben is responsible for how people view him in regards to being a rapist.
It basically sums the case up in a way you'll never get from the media. It's all factual. It's easy to verify what I'm saying. Most of the people who throw this accusation out against Ben don't know much beyond he was suspended and hung out to dry by that prick Art II, Goodell, and the grandstanding DA who frankly had no business making those remarks in a case where the evidence indicated that she probably didn't even have sex with Ben let alone get raped.The only way Ben could have brought those opinions upon himself is if he actually did the deed and in which case he should be in a prison cell. But he wasn't even charged. People are always going to level those accusations but the funniest part to me is you'll see some guy laud Kobe Bryant out of one side of his mouth and then attack Ben as a rapist out of the other. Those people know who they are, too.
If we assume Ben did not do it (the first case shouldn't even be a question to me, but it's irrelevant here) either time for a moment, then no that particular accusation isn't really something he brought upon himself.
Being in general an arrogant jackass or a bore or however you describe it does not mean you open yourself up to accusations of rape.
Ponder this for a moment. Ben for whatever reason slept with a really crazy (and frankly unattractive) female while on vacation. An employee in some resort. She spends the next few months bragging about it and talking about moving to Pittsburgh to start a relationship with him while co-workers look at her in horror. All of this is basically documented. She feels spurned and somehow gets it into her head to file a lawsuit that as far as we know went nowhere. We don't even know if there was a settlement or if a single dime changed hands.
Skip ahead roughly a year to his misadventure in Milledgeville. He goes into the bathroom with a drunk girl trying to get laid who had been flirting and wearing a DTF sticker on her chest. His version of events is that she was too drunk to do much with and he left without much happening.
Her friends who were outside the bathroom in the area with everyone else see her stumble out or however that happened. They Google Ben and see the story on his first rape accusation. The lawsuit from the crazy broad in Lake Tahoe. They did Google Ben I'd wager because they gave the cops his exact height and weight from his player profile on NFL.com. Exactly the same.
The girl in the bathroom, very drunk, initially tells her friends she wasn't raped. They insist she talk to the police anyway. She being drunk goes along with their suggestion. She talks to the cops, is on video slurring her words. Initially tells them she wasn't raped before saying she kind of was.
Here it is from CNN:
According to Blash's case summary, "he asked [the alleged victim] if Roethlisberger had raped her and she stated, 'No, I did not know what was going on,' because she was intoxicated so much."
The summary said, "Blash indicated that he asked the victim, 'Did he rape you?', and the victim stated 'no.' Blash asked the victim if they had sex, and she responded by saying, 'Well, I'm not sure.' "
There was no physical evidence proving intercourse had occurred that night. There was minute DNA evidence that was so small that they couldn't even match it to Ben.
The girl claims that when they had sex, Ben did not use a condom. Which is a pretty important detail. But again...the DNA evidence was so minute that they couldn't get any match.
It was the victim and her family who declined to even pursue the matter further, but even if they hadn't this almost certainly doesn't get any convictions. I doubt a DA would charge. Again, there's zero evidence money changed hands and as far as I can tell no one has ever talked to this girl again about what happened. Or at least she hasn't talked.
But then same grandstanding DA got on TV and mugged for the camera. That's another story.
I wasn't there and I don't know what happened, but I know no jury was going to convict even if this did get to court because she was that drunk, no physical evidence, and perhaps most importantly she contradicted herself and couldn't give the cops a clear answer as to anything that did happen until sobering up. And the physical evidence that did exist contradicted her story frankly.
The media already hated Ben by this point in his career. They weren't going to give him the benefit of the doubt on this and there was never a truly honest accounting of the evidence against him.
There was more evidence against Kobe than there was Ben. As far as we can tell, Ben didn't even have a consensual sexual encounter.
I don't care about Ben's honor. I don't care if morons want to level the accusation against him. Doesn't bother me any. Athletes, sports, the Steelers are just entertainment. On a personal level, if Ben was guilty, he should have gone to jail obviously. This to me isn't even a case of not enough evidence or just he said she said. The evidence we have backs up Ben's version of events more than it doesn't.
It was kind of a fluky set of circumstances and I think many guys who have been to bars and clubbing can relate to some elements of it regardless of whether they are a famous athlete or anything of the sort. The jealous and cock blocking friends to start with who were the ones who pushed the girl to go to the police and make the accusation to begin with.
I genuinely do not believe Roethlisberger was guilty of this and the first case was so absurd that it doesn't even deserve mentioning. But it's an example of perception becoming the reality. People can say there were technically two rape accusations against him regardless of the evidence in either and one being completely laughable on its face.
I'm not going to single-handedly change anything about this, but I felt like Ben got railroaded at the time. I had personally been seemingly the only person railing against Goodell and his personal conduct bullshit since 2007 when it started with Chris Henry. And it was kind of funny at the time to see it applied to Ben and the Steelers.
He was railroaded throughout the entire process. Two sanctimonious pricks in Goodell and the DA used it to advance their agenda and career respectively. The media just wanted a story and hated Ben for how he acted towards them so fuck him. And then there was Art II who didn't care about what happened and just didn't want the headlines getting him sour looks at the cocktail parties or a fan revolt.
Ben doesn't have to be a great guy in my version of reality. He doesn't have to behave like I would have or like to think I would have. He may have been a drunk, a louse, or any number of other things. But there is dick all for evidence that he raped anyone. So many people worry more about perception than truth. They don't want to defend Ben because the general consensus among the media, backed by ambitious and unscrupulous power figures, and the general public was two accusations makes him auto-guilty. His behavior then just made it even easier. The guy doesn't tip and talks trash during pick-up basketball games? Fuck him he's a rapist! He went into the bathroom with some drunk college girl trying to get laid? I better pretend I'd have never done such a thing as a young man or my wife may get mad at me...Could go on all day to describe these hypocritical fucks, but I digress.
I'll climb down from my soapbox. I just don't think he did it. That's just my honest take.
