Ben Roethlisberger: Why Roger Goodell Shouldn't Have Suspended Him at All

Imagine you're on a jury in a civil case involving an accusation of rape, and the plaintiff's legal team presents a case in which they tell you the woman is not even sure she was raped, the rape kit came back uncertain as to whether there'd been a rape, and every bit of physical evidence was entirely consistent with the defendant's story, who claims he didn't do it. The defendant is being sued for $1.8 million dollars. How would you find?

Contrast this with today's world of media pontification in which it seems that every time someone is accused of something, the sports media clamor all over one another trying to outdo the last in heaping on the condemnation. Whether the accusation is correct or not is not important; in terms of reporting, it's either buried or not reported at all. In the case of Ben Roethlisberger, this is precisely the case. 

There are those in the general public who may have the impression that the only reason Ben "got away with it" is that he got some help from some friendlies in the police department, a disappearing tape, and a bathroom that got cleaned. The general perception is not merely inferred, it's been implied by the mainstream media. What the actual facts are on the case though, is a shockingly different story. 

Consider the statement from Fred Bright, the Georgia DA who decided not to prosecute the case:

"The crime of rape has three elements: sexual intercourse, which requires penetration, forcibly, and against her will. All three elements, I’ve got a problem proving all three of those."

Now let that sink in for a moment. They couldn't even confirm that sexual intercourse took place, and that, if it did, they couldn't prove "penetration" nor could they prove it was against her will. It's hard to say that Ben got away with a rape, when you can't even prove the alleged victim was raped at all. 

Still you might think, well, OK, it's her word against his. But again, consider this from the interview with the police that the woman in question had. Again, I'm quoting form Bright's interview in which he explains his decision not to prosecute. He's explaining how her sorority sisters were trying to convince her to report what had happened:

"It was her sisters’ idea to go report this to the police. So it was immediately reported to the police. There are a lot of Milledgeville police working the streets where the bars are. This is a college town. And when they took her to the first officer, he said it was mostly the sorority sisters who were talking and there was a lot of confusion, and he could tell they were trying to report something; it sounded like sexual assault. And the first words out of his lips, the police officer’s, he said, ‘Did he rape you?’ And her response was, ‘No.’ Next, the first officer said, ‘Did they have sex?’ And she said, ‘Well, I’m not sure."

After she got to the police station, it started to turn into a rape accusation. But she was drunk and as she sobered up, she started to say she'd been raped. However, I can see why there's a question there. When you factor in that the rape kit couldn't confirm either sex or rape, along with the fact that it was only after spending 12 hours in a police interview room that the woman starts to say she was raped, it makes me think that maybe she wasn't. 

Here's Roethlisberger's statement to the police according to Bright:

"The first officer went over there and spoke to Mr. Roethlisberger and what was referred to as his agent. Mr. Roethlisberger’s initial statement at the Capital City Club to law enforcement was, he said he remembered her ‘and I told her she was too drunk to be back here.’ And then he said something about he remembered her falling and hitting her head. The victim, when she went to the hospital, never complained of any pain or any injuries whatsoever. After he said he remembered her falling and hitting her head, his agent, actually the PR person for the agency Mr. Roethlisberger uses, stepped in and said that he, Mr. Roethlisberger, won’t be making any further statement without having an attorney present.

So in terms of the "he said verses she said" part of the conversation, there's no ambiguity on Roethlisberger's part, but there is on the alleged victim's part. Still, one could say that she's drunk and she's scared, and it's not until she starts to sober up that it dawns on her what really happened. In other words, just because she was uncertain doesn't mean she wasn't raped. 

However, we don't need to look at only what was said, but we can also look at the physical evidence and see if either story corresponds better with the actual physical evidence. Again, I'm going to point you to DA Bright's own press conference,

"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."

While I find the whole "video tape" controversy baseless, I can see it coming, so I'll head it off at the pass. Again, Bright details the actual facts:

"(The video tape had) zero effect. The incident happened at Capital City Club in a small, dingy bathroom in what they call the back area, the V.I.P. area. There’s obviously no camera in the bathroom, and there’s no camera in the V.I.P. area. As far as it being erased, it really wasn’t. Technology’s really not my thing, but they had viewed it. They had viewed portions of it. But there’s no camera that would’ve shed any light one way or the other on anything relevant. There are some surveillance cameras, and they do show—and they have seen them—Mr. Roethlisberger and his party coming in first; the victim and her sorority sisters came in later. But that’s not in dispute. I’ve read all this stuff about this tape being erased. That really is a non-issue."

In other words, the rape kit and all the physical evidence were 100 percent consistent with Roethlisberger's story, and inconsistent with the woman having been raped.

Yet, in the court of public opinion, he's "Rapelisberger" and lucky to not be in jail. And yes, I know that there was that other accusation, which also never led to charges being filed. Being wrongly accused twice doesn't make you guilty, it just makes you an easy target. The original suspension would have cost him $1.8 million, now it's down to $1.2 million, and it's not about what he actually did, it's about what he was perceived to have done.

I know that technically he was suspended for the misconduct policy, but that's preposterous. How many NFL players have tried to pick up women and buy them drinks in bars? If that's the extent of his "misconduct," we should be playing the first four weeks of the season with replacement players. 

Roger Goodell is getting criticized today for easing up on the suspension, but if you look at the facts surrounding the case, he should have never suspended Roethlisberger at all. When uncertain accusations, accompanied by a complete lack of corroborating evidence, become the basis for suspensions, there's a big problem. 

Goodell should have stood up for Roethlisberger, not suspended him. He should have stated what the facts were, not just what the press wanted to hear. Perhaps that's the real reason he is relaxing the suspension, but he should remove it entirely.