NFL quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will not face sexual assault charges after a college student declined to press charges, authorities said on Monday.
Prosecutors said the 20-year-old woman’s accusations could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and her lawyer said in a letter that she did not want to press charges against the Pittsburgh Steelers star.
The woman told an officer the two-time Super Bowl champion sexually assaulted her last month at the Capital City night club, where he was drinking with friends.
“The prosecutor’s decision not to bring charges, I know without a doubt, is the right conclusion,” Roethlisberger said on Monday. “I don’t intend to discuss any details related to the events of Georgia. I’m happy to put this behind me and move forward.”
District attorney Fred Bright said the investigation showed the woman was drinking heavily that night.
She and her friends had met Roethlisberger earlier that night at another club and he invited them into a VIP area at the Capital City club. When the woman got up to go to the toilet Roethlisberger followed her.
A doctor who examined the woman could not say if she was raped, and while some DNA was found, there was not enough to determine whom it belonged to.
The woman’s lawyer, David Walbert, said in a letter to Bright that his client was not recanting her accusation. But the letter also stated she did not want to press the issue because it would be “a very intrusive personal experience.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he is still planning to meet privately with Roethlisberger and that talk is scheduled for later this week.
Former first-round draft pick Roethlisberger is being sued by another woman who says he raped her in 2008 at a Nevada casino. Roethlisberger denies the accusation.
Roethlisberger led Pittsburgh to Super Bowl titles in 2006 and last year.
“I’m truly sorry for the disappointment and negative attention I brought to my family, my teammates, coaches, the Rooneys and the NFL,” Roethlisberger said.
“I understand that the opportunities I have been blessed with are a privilege, and much is expected of me as the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I absolutely want to be the leader this team deserves, valued in the community and a role model to kids. I have much work to do to earn this trust,” he said.
Former Steelers all-star quarterback Terry Bradshaw said on Monday that Roethlisberger needs to take a good look in the mirror.
“He has got to realize who he is,” Bradshaw said. “He has an image problem right now. The best thing to do is don’t put himself in that position again.”
“He doesn’t like me and I am learning not to like him,” he said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier