Ben Roethlisberger Admits Sexual Contact But Not Intercourse with Accuser, According to TV Station
March 11, 2010— -- Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger told police that he did not have sexual intercourse with the woman who has accused him of assault, according to anonymous sources cited by KDKA-TV.
The sources reportedly told the station that Roethlisberger spoke with Milledgeville, Ga. police on the night of the alleged assault and admitted sexual contact with the woman but said that it was not consummated. KDKA reports the sources said Roethlisberger told police the woman slipped and fell afterward, injuring her head.
Diane Kelly, spokeswoman for the Milledgeville Police, declined to comment on the case and whether police have interviewed Roethlisberger.
Legal experts tell ABC News that if reports of Roethlisberger's police interview are true, his situation may be more complicated than it was before he talked to them.
"This just illustrates the fact that making statements to the police, when suspicions are cast upon you, are never a good idea," criminal defense attorney Gerald A. Shargel told ABC News.
Shargel has argued many high-profile cases, most recently Joe Halderman's extortion case involving David Letterman. "The conventional view is no good could come from a police interview," he said.
Trial attorney Isabelle Kirshner, a partner at Clayman & Rosenberg LLP, agrees that Roethlisberger's statements, if true, may harm his case by "providing a link in the chain of events that corroborate with what the victim said."
"Every time you acknowledge one element, it opens the lines to a whole other line of inquiry," Kirshner said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has begun its review of videos from the Milledgeville nightclubs that Roethlisberger visited the night of the alleged incident, Special Agent Tom Davis announced in a press conference on Monday.
But on Wednesday afternoon, the lawyer for one of two off-duty Pennsylvania law enforcement officers who accompanied Roethlisberger the night of the incident came forward and said they did not see anything inappropriate occur.
