Alleged Roethlisberger Victim Wants Apology, Charitable Donation Instead Of $$$

((HT: Reno Gazette-Journal/Bellisle))

Andrea McNulty’s lawyer, Cal Dunlap, said the offer was designed to quash claims by Roethlisberger’s lawyers that she was only after his money.

“(McNulty’s) only interest has been and is to regain the dignity that was taken from her,” Dunlap said in a motion asking the letter be added to the court record.

In the letter to the quarterback’s lawyers, Dunlap said they “have a total misconception of what motivates our client,” adding she “is a victim of sexual assault who, as with all such victims, was violated in every sense of the term.”

He accused the Roethlisberger lawyers of “intentionally conceal(ing) evidence of this and other wrongdoing by Mr. Roethlisberger while making unfounded and malicious accusations and unwarranted threats against our client and against this law firm.”

Roethlisberger's lawyer, David Cornwell, said they would not accept her offer.

Shocker there...

Lawyers From Both Sides In Roethlisberger Case Want Sanctions

Each side's legal representation now wants each others ass in a sling, and they're more than willing to file paperwork to prove their points...

Your highlights...

((HT: Reno Gazette-Journal/Bellisle))

Roethlisberger’s lawyers are threatening to sue Dunlap for defamation, among other claims, while Cal Dunlap, lawyer for Andrea McNulty, says a letter from Roethlisberger’s lawyers “borders on criminal extortion.”

In a motion filed Thursday, Dunlap said Roethlisberger’s lawyers failed to follow standards of professional conduct when they attached an affidavit by McNulty’s former friend to a motion to change venue, and followed-up with a letter to Dunlap calling for McNulty to apologize, withdraw her claims, and help them go after Dunlap.

The Aug. 19 settlement letter makes two proposals: The first calls for McNulty to dismiss her suit and sign a release.

The second proposal states that if she cooperates with Roethlisberger in his claims against Dunlap for extortion, abuse of process, malicious prosecution and defamation, they will release her from all claims.

The letter also states that McNulty’s lawsuit was part of a conspiracy to extort and defame Roethlisberger, and said the “actual and intended result of this wrongful conduct has been, inter alia, to seriously impair his earning potential in an amount well exceeding $20 million.”

Dunlap said Roethlisberger’s lawyers were trying to intimidate him and McNulty.

“It appears that Mr. Roethlisberger is not satiated by the complained of assault on plaintiff, but needs to further assault her legal rights and wishes to assault and bully her counsel,” Dunlap said in a motion opposing Atlanta lawyer David Cornwell’s request to work on the case with local counsel John Echeverria.

Cornwell responded by saying Dunlap and McNulty, were both at fault.

“Mr. Dunlap hurled false and vicious attacks against good people into the public arena,” Cornwell said in an e-mail. “The evidence proves that Ms. McNulty knew and Mr. Dunlap knew or should have known that her allegations are false. This evidence was available to Mr. Dunlap before the scurrilous complaint was filed.

Here's Dunlap's copy of the opposition to the motion for a change in venue for the trial...

And here's Dunlap's paperwork on his opposition to the Roethlisberger attorneys...

Those of us at OSG HQ tihnk both sides are just warming up their printers and PDF's...

Roethlisberger's Lawyer Releases Accuser's E-mails

And the thought is that Andrea McNulty is not placed in a flattering light...

((HT: Reno Gazette-Journal/Bellisle))

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s Atlanta lawyer released pages of e-mails Tuesday allegedly between the woman who accused the NFL player of raping her and her online boyfriend, that included boasts of having dinner with Roethlisberger ((pictured, thanks Jamie Squire/Getty)) two days after the alleged attack.

In another e-mail, Andrea McNulty threatened to “date Ben Roethlisberger” if the boyfriend ended their relationship, and said she was “dead serious” about the threat, claiming

Roethlisberger was “still in the cards” for her.

“We believe that Ms. McNulty’s own words directly refute the scurrilous allegations made in her complaint,” said David Cornwell, in a statement attached to the e-mails. “Ms. McNulty should abandon her lawsuit immediately and admit that Ben Roethlisberger did not rape her.”

Stacy Dingman, a former director of hotels at Harrah’s, said McNulty, her former best friend, “unjustifiably dragged” her into “this baseless lawsuit,” and said McNulty failed to support a list of claims she made against Dingman, including defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Here's a copy of Dingman's motion to dismiss...

Those of us at OSG HQ think this is the beginning of the end for Ms. McNulty...

Court Filing: Sex With Roethlisberger Consensual

((HT: Reno Gazette-Journal/Bellisle))

The woman who claimed in a lawsuit that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger raped her and Harrah's Lake Tahoe management covered it up allegedly bragged about having consensual sex with him to a co-worker, according to court documents filed late Friday.

In a sworn statement attached to a motion to move the case to Douglas County, Angela Antonetti said that Andrea McNulty, the woman who made the rape claim, "did not appear to be upset, stressed-out or nervous" about having "been with Roethlisberger" during the 2008 American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament.

Instead, McNulty "appeared happy and boastful" about it, and later said she thought she might be pregnant from the encounter, the affidavit said.

"Rather than indicating that she was afraid or apprehensive about this, Andrea expressed to me that she was hoping for a 'little Roethlisberger'," said Antonetti, who worked with McNulty at Harrahs between 2006 and 2009.

Reached late Friday, McNultys lawyer, Cal Dunlap, said he had not seen the documents and declined to comment.

McNulty filed the lawsuit in Washoe District Court on July 17, claiming that she was working as a VIP hostess during the tournament when Roethlisberger asked her to come to his room to fix his television. She said he raped her and then told her to leave.

She said she reported it to Harrah's security chief Guy Hyder the next day, but nothing was done. Her lawsuit claims eight members of Harrah's management, including casino president John Koster, conspired to cover up the alleged attack.

Her lawsuit said that she went into a deep depression after the alleged attack, and spent months in and out of hospitals.

But the motion, filed by Roethlisberger's Nevada lawyer, John Echeverria, said that her claims were an attempt to exploit his celebrity status.

Tuesday Overnight: Roethlisberger Update

((HT: CBSSports))

A woman has filed a lawsuit accusing Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of raping her last summer in his penthouse hotel room at a casino in Lake Tahoe during a celebrity golf tournament ((his activity there in 2009 is pictured, thanks Getty Images)).

Roethlisberger's lawyer denied the allegations Tuesday, and noted that the woman, who was working at the hotel as an executive casino host, never went to the authorities.

"Ben has never sexually assaulted anyone. The timing of the lawsuit and the absence of a criminal complaint and a criminal investigation are the most compelling evidence of the absence of any criminal conduct," David Cornwell said in a statement. "If an investigation is commenced, Ben will cooperate fully and Ben will be fully exonerated."

The suit also alleges hotel officials for Harrah's Lake Tahoe went to great lengths to cover up the incident.

It seeks a minimum of $440,000 in damages from the quarterback, at least $50,000 in damages from the Harrah's officials and an unspecified amount of punitive damages "sufficient to deter" Roethlisberger and the others "from engaging in such conduct in the future."

The woman's lawsuit says she didn't file a criminal complaint because she feared Harrah's would side with Roethlisberger and she would be fired. The suit doesn't say whether the woman is still working for Harrah's.

The Steelers and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said they were looking into the allegations against Roethlisberger, one of the biggest names in sports. He has won two Super Bowls in his five-year career, and is about to report to training camp as the Steelers look to repeat as champions.

The woman said Roethlisberger struck up a friendly conversation at her desk during the golf tournament last July.

The next night, she said he telephoned her to tell her his television sound system wasn't working and asked her to look at it. She said she was unable to find a technician so she handled it herself because she had been told it was important to please the celebrities.

In Roethlisberger's room she said she determined the TV was functioning properly but as she turned to leave, the 6-foot-5, 240-pound quarterback blocked her exit, the suit claims.

The lawsuit said he grabbed her and started to kiss her. It said she was "shocked and stunned that this previously friendly man, that appeared to be a gentleman in her previous contacts with him was suddenly preventing her from leaving, was assaulting her and battering her."

She said she feared that because he was a football player he could or would physically harm her if she tried to fight him off, but that she objected and protested several times.

"But instead of stopping, Roethlisberger began fondling plaintiff through her dress and between her legs," the suit said. He then "held her against her will and physically moved plaintiff and pushed her onto his bed" where he raped her, the suit says.

She told him "You don't want to do this," and begged him "I am not on any type of birth control."

Afterward, he asked if there was a security camera in the hallway. She said he then instructed her to claim she had repaired his television if anyone asked why she was in his room.

The lawsuit says the woman required hospitalization for treatment for depression after the alleged attack.

Efforts to reach the woman Tuesday were unsuccessful.

The woman's lawyer, Calvin R. Dunlap, of Reno, declined to answer questions about the lack of a criminal complaint and why the civil action was brought a year after the incident allegedly took place.

"Neither I nor our client will be making any comment," Dunlap said in an e-mail to the Associated Press. "We believe the matter should be resolved in court rather than in the media."

Teresa Duffy, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office in Douglas County, which includes part of Lake Tahoe, said no complaints were filed about such an incident either with sheriff's deputies or the district attorney's office.

The lawsuit also names eight Harrah's employees as defendants and alleges the cover-up involved the chief of security at Harrah's Lake Tahoe and was carried out with the knowledge of John Koster, president of Harrah's northern Nevada operations.

John Packer, spokesman for the hotel-casino, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Harrah's Entertainment, the hotel-casino's parent company, declined comment.

"We don't comment on pending legal matters," Jacqueline Peterson said from company headquarters in Las Vegas.

The suit says Harrah's security chief Guy Hyder gained the trust of the woman's parents while she was hospitalized for depression, and persuaded them to give him a key to her home. She said Hyder and others then entered her home and allegedly erased information from her computer and confiscated it.

The lawsuit claims that when the woman first reported the attack to Hyder he dismissed her distress and crying and said she was "overreacting."

The woman said Hyder told her that "most girls would feel lucky to get to have sex with someone like Ben Roethlisberger" and that "Koster would love you even more if he knew about this" because Koster was good friends with Roethlisberger and admired him greatly.

The suit also accuses the defendants of defaming her, including suggesting she was sexually promiscuous.

It said they also made false statements about her physical and mental health, including reportedly telling others she was hospitalized for schizophrenia when they knew her "problems arose out of having been sexually assaulted."

Goodell said Tuesday he was looking into the various allegations.

"I don't know enough of the details, but it's a civil lawsuit, it's something that we obviously will look into," he said when asked about it in New York during an unrelated news conference. "I've been in touch with the Steelers about it."

Steelers spokesman Dave Lockett said the team is aware of the lawsuit, and "we are gathering information."

Lockett confirmed that Roethlisberger had canceled a news conference scheduled Thursday to promote Shaquille O'Neal's new TV series that debuts on ABC on Aug. 8, Shaq Vs. Roethlisberger is one of the top athletes the NBA All-Star center intends to challenge in a series of skills tests in their respective sports.

The Steelers clinched a 27-23 Super Bowl victory against the Arizona Cardinals this year when Roethlisberger connected with Santonio Holmes for the game-winning touchdown in the game's closing seconds.

Last week Roethlisberger played in the 20th annual American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament at Lake Tahoe, finishing tied for 30th in the field of 89 golfers. It was not immediately known if he stayed at Harrah's.

Here's KTVN-TV coverage with Brandon Rittiman in the newsroom.
He has plenty of file tape and full screen graphics...

Roethlisberger Accused Of Sexual Assault

((HT: TSN))

Pittsburgh Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger ((pictured, thanks Jamie Squire/Getty)) has been accused of sexual assault by a Nevada casino employee.

David Cornwall, the attorney for the two-time Super Bowl champion, has denied the allegations made by Andrea McNulty, who filed a civil lawsuit last week in Washoe County, Nevada stemming from an alleged incident at a hotel room in July 2008.

The charges that Roethlisberger faces include a civil count of assault, a civil count of sexual assault and battery and a civil count of false imprisonment.

In a statement issued to ProFootballTalk.com, Cornwall addressed the issue.

"This weekend, Andrea McNulty served Ben Roethlisberger with a civil complaint accusing him of sexually assaulting her in July 2008. Ben has never sexually assaulted anyone, especially Andrea McNulty.

"The timing of the lawsuit and the absence of a criminal complaint and a criminal investigation are the most compelling evidence of the absence of any criminal conduct. If an investigation is commenced, Ben will cooperate fully and Ben will be fully exonerated.

"Ben will not be baited into a public discussion about his personal life, but we will defend him vigorously. The limited value that Ms. McNulty derived from public disclosure of these viciously false allegations is the only value she will ever receive from Ben in this case."

The 27-year old Roethlisberger led the Steelers to victory this past February in Super Bowl XLIII over the Arizona Cardinals.

Here are some more bits and pieces from Florio...

"In the civil suit, which Cornwell confirms was served on Roethlisberger over the weekend and a copy of which our own Gregg Rosenthal has obtained, McNulty alleges that Roethlisberger asked her to come to his hotel room to fix the television, and that he thereafter forced her to have sex with him.

Roethlisberger faces one civil count of assault, one civil count of sexual assault and battery, one civil count of false imprisonment, one civil count of false pretenses, one civil count of fraud, and one civil count of intentonal infliction of emtional distress.

McNulty also claims that the coworkers named in the complaint thereafter defamed her by making allegedly false and inflammatory statements, and by allegedly serving as aiders and abettors of Roethlisberger's alleged misconduct after the fact."