From the beginning, this whole Ben Roethlisberger sexual assault lawsuit thing has been a little … strange. There are no criminal charges involved, the accuser’s mental health issues have been made unusually public, and let’s not even get into the whole ESPN embargo thing, which served to blow the whole story out of proportion.
Regardless of the case’s actual merits, the accuser herself, Andrea McNulty, has probably done more harm than good over the past month by chatting up her local newspaper to garner sympathy for her cause. Judges tend to frown on people openly discussing their cases in the media, and if McNulty is truly looking for justice, she should be doing everything in her power to get it - including shutting the hell up until she has her day in court. And yes, Andrea, that would include NOT (allegedly) blabbing to your Harrah’s coworkers about how much you just loved all the Ben-sex you had and just hoped you were going to have his baby.
In hindsight, that might not have been the best first step towards getting millions of dollars from the Steelers’ star QB. From the ASSOCIATED PRESS (via THE NEW YORK TIMES):
According to court documents filed late Friday, Angela Antonetti said the woman who made the rape claim “did not appear to be upset, stressed out or nervous” about her time with Roethlisberger, who was at a 2008 celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe.
Antonetti, the accuser’s co-worker at Harrah’s hotel-casino, said the accuser “appeared happy and boastful” and later said she thought she might be pregnant from the encounter. Antonetti made the remarks in a sworn statement attached to a motion to move the case to Minden, Nev., from Reno.
Now, in McNulty’s defense here, she has maintained in her lawsuit that Harrah’s pressured her to keep the incident a secret and forced her to cover it up. IF that is true, then this could all be a conspiracy to discredit the accuser and protect Roethlisberger. That’s a big IF, of course, but don’t ever say we aren’t willing to be fair; we’ll leave the “journalistic disgraces” to others on this one.
1:20 pm on August 9th, 2009
Not to play party pooper, but it is possible that she went from being happy about the (probable) sex, or lying about it to her friends, to gradually realizing it was sexual assault, isn’t it?
I’m not saying it’s the only, or most likely, conclusion, or that her case has more than a snowball’s chance in hell at this point. But that is possible.
1:48 pm on August 9th, 2009
still ugly
12:14 am on August 10th, 2009
how embarrassing and to make matters worse she looks like a horse.. dang Ben.. lol
10:36 am on August 10th, 2009
So, Andy, are you saying that she was happy about having sex, then realized that it was sexual assault. I am pretty sure that if it was without consent, she would have known it right away. Sure, your scenario is possible, but the law is not about possibility. It is possible that a pig may be able to fly under its own power, but it is not likely.
12:24 pm on August 10th, 2009
You don’t have sex and like it and then later “Realize” you were sexually assaulted. Several days/weeks/months is an awfully long walk of shame.