The facts as they appear from our investigation are essentially these: On the evening of Thursday, March 4, and going into after midnight on Friday, March 5, Ben Roethlisberger was bar-hopping with his bodyguards and friends here in Milledgeville, Georgia, and attracting a crowd wherever he went. And his victim was bar-hopping with her sorority sisters. Both parties had been drinking alcohol prior to meeting each other. They did not know each other before this evening, but did meet at different bars throughout the night. They participated in conversations, some of a sexual nature. After midnight, Mr. Roethlisberger and his entourage were at the Capital City Club and the manager let them use the V.I.P. area. The victim went with her sorority sisters to the nightclub later. Mr. Roethlisberger invited them into the V.I.P. area where he provided shots of alcohol for them. Everyone agrees that the victim was highly intoxicated due to consuming alcohol. One of the bodyguards guided the victim down a back hallway. Mr. Roethlisberger followed her down the hallway into a small bathroom. The issue is what happened in that small, less than five-foot-wide, single-commode bathroom, between Mr. Roethlisberger and the victim. Significant questions about what occurred persist. A report was made to law enforcement immediately. Initial interviews were conducted. The victim was driven by a friend to the Oconee Regional Medical Center, the local hospital in Milledgeville. An emergency-room doctor and two nurses examined her. Noted in their report was a superficial laceration and bruising and slight bleeding in the genital area. Everything else in the medical examination was normal. The doctor stated that he could not say these were or were not from any kind of trauma or sexual assault. A standard rape evidence kit was collected. The doctor found no evidence of semen or discharge. The swabbings from the rape-evidence kit were tested by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Atlanta, Georgia, and the initial testing found human male DNA present. Additional extensive testing was done, but because the sample was so minute it would not yield a profile. The crime lab advised that extracting DNA from Mr. Roethlisberger at this point was futile due to the fact that no profile was available from the minute male DNA sample submitted in the rape-evidence kit. Hence, that is when Mr. Roethlisberger’s attorney was informed that no buccal-swab samples for DNA would be needed from his client anymore.
The crime that was being investigated was rape. Under our official code, section 16-6-1, the elements of rape are having carnal knowledge – that means having sexual intercourse, which requires penetration – of a female forcibly and against her will. In this judicial circuit, we have always strongly held that a woman has a right to be safe from attack, but every case must be viewed in the context of its circumstances. Here, the overall circumstances do not lead to a viable prosecution. If they did, I would pursue it vigorously. We are not condoning Mr. Roethlisberger’s actions that night, but we do not prosecute morals, we prosecute crimes.
