Big Ben buying his way out of trouble?

[JSD]

Maybe it’s a coincidence, but it’s strange how the case of alleged sexual assault against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has begun to publicly unravel in the three days since Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the situation… On Tuesday, word came that the request for a DNA sample had been withdrawn. … On Wednesday, KDKA-TV reported that the alleged victim has failed to meet with authorities for a second interview, and that she hasn’t spoken to police since the evening of the alleged incident…

And here’s where it gets weird. (Or, as the case may be, weirder.) Cansino explains that the security videos from the evening of the incident weren’t available, because the system used at the club “recorded over the footage.” “The DVD system overwrote itself,” Cansino told the Tribune-Review. “Had it just been deleted, they might have been able to save some of it.”…One of the frustrations often encountered in these cases is that nightclubs and retailers are in position to preserve the footage that advances their interests, such as video of employee misconduct, because they know to pull the images before the system covers them up with new footage. For incidents that could create liability for the business, the footage usually is long gone by the time a lawsuit is threatened or filed, since the business had no reason to save it, especially if it might be harmful to the interests of the business. There’s a huge difference in this case. The folks who run the Capital City nightclub in Milledgeville, Georgia knew immediately that an incident had occurred. Thus, the footage should have been flagged and saved, with or without a request or a subpoena. So, yes, something stinks about this specific development. ProFootballTalk.com

Investigators should have had the surveillance video within hours after the incident was called in. This will probably be another example of an athlete buying his way out of trouble.

There is no reason for a grown man to be in a woman's room unless he has to take a crazy wiz while on a road trip and even that is situational.

[Bahku]

Maybe it’s a coincidence, but it’s strange how the case of alleged sexual assault against Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has begun to publicly unravel in the three days since Commissioner Roger Goodell addressed the situation… On Tuesday, word came that the request for a DNA sample had been withdrawn. … On Wednesday, KDKA-TV reported that the alleged victim has failed to meet with authorities for a second interview, and that she hasn’t spoken to police since the evening of the alleged incident…

And here’s where it gets weird. (Or, as the case may be, weirder.) Cansino explains that the security videos from the evening of the incident weren’t available, because the system used at the club “recorded over the footage.” “The DVD system overwrote itself,” Cansino told the Tribune-Review. “Had it just been deleted, they might have been able to save some of it.”…One of the frustrations often encountered in these cases is that nightclubs and retailers are in position to preserve the footage that advances their interests, such as video of employee misconduct, because they know to pull the images before the system covers them up with new footage. For incidents that could create liability for the business, the footage usually is long gone by the time a lawsuit is threatened or filed, since the business had no reason to save it, especially if it might be harmful to the interests of the business. There’s a huge difference in this case. The folks who run the Capital City nightclub in Milledgeville, Georgia knew immediately that an incident had occurred. Thus, the footage should have been flagged and saved, with or without a request or a subpoena. So, yes, something stinks about this specific development. ProFootballTalk.com

Investigators should have had the surveillance video within hours after the incident was called in. This will probably be another example of an athlete buying his way out of trouble.

There is no reason for a grown man to be in a woman's room unless he has to take a crazy **** while on a road trip and even that is situational.

Highly questionable stuff going on here ... money seemingly once again the priority over justice. And we keep paying the big bucks for tickets. This is so Kobe-ish it's bizarre.

[Donoghus]

There's no doubt in my mind that Rothliesberger is a scumbag who puts himself in dubious situations (I mean, he's still running around with the college crowd) but I also have a sneaking suspicion that we're dealing with questionable accusations by people with $$ signs in their eyes.

[Bahku]

There's no doubt in my mind that Rothliesberger is a scumbag who puts himself in dubious situations (I mean, he's still running around with the college crowd) but I also have a sneaking suspicion that we're dealing with questionable accusations by people with $$ signs in their eyes.

That's for sure (TP) ... it's almost always both sides that perpetuate this kind of stuff, and one is not much better than the other, (if at all).

[nickagneta]

This is the second accusation against Roethlisberger for sexual assault and the questionable happenings occurring during this investigation to me lend credence to the fact that we may be looking at a serial sexual predator here. It's very tough to gauge since so many stars have people throwing themselves on them but in this case it sure appears that Roethlisberger was the pursuer not the not the one being pursued. But to even walk into a women's room to do something illicit after already being accused of sexual assault once before tells me either Roethlisberger is an idiot or predator, one or the other.

I guess giving him the benefit of the doubt and saying he's just an idiot is okay but given what I and friends of mine know about how indiscretions in college tend to disappear, I wonder if there were some dubious reports about him coming out of the University of Miami(OH).

I've been loathe to bring this subject up as I can imagine the character assassination that is going to occur and if we have Steelers fans here they aren't going to be happy about it. But we aren't talking about a one time thing here. This is the second case against him.

[BudweiserCeltic]

The problem here was the police not taking the tape into evidence. Those who have actually worked with surveillance cameras through DVR know that footage gets written over after x amount of time. The police should had either confiscated the recording or asked for a copy of the recording immediately.

I don't know if this is what happened here, but there's really nothing funky about a DVR writing new footage over the old footage in a week's time.

What happened here is police negligence if anything. If something else happened, well we really don't have the information to know. What we do know is of the bad job done by the police. But the police did watch the footage, don't know what that amounts to.