Nearly a month after an allegation surfaced in early March that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger sexually assaulted a 20-year-old Georgia College & State U. student at a Milledgeville bar, Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Fred Bright announced this past Monday that no charges will be filed.
The attorney for the student who accused Roethlisberger said the woman asked prosecutors not to pursue the case to avoid an intrusive trial. A letter from the student’s attorney, David Walbert, to Bright stated that his client was not recanting her accusation.
The letter was distributed to press conference ateendees. In the letter, Walbert directed the district attorney to “be aware” that the student “does not want to prosecute this matter further” but it should be known that she is not retracting her original statement. “… the media coverage to date, and the efforts of the media to access our client, have been unnerving, to say the least,” the letter reads.
An e-mail Dr. Bruce Harshbarger, GCSU’s vice president of student affairs, sent out March 8 asking students to respect the woman’s privacy by not sharing identifying information or spreading gossip to media representatives, has been taken to heart by most on campus.
National, regional, state and local media members attended Monday’s press conference and descended upon campus. Christian Boone, a reporter from The Atlanta Journal Constitution, has been covering the story of late.
“By the time I was down there, her sorority sisters had kind of figured out how the media operates,” Boone said. “They took down their Facebook pages within days.”
The “media circus,” as Boone referred to it, was not regarded with hostility, but “students were not engaged with (the incident).”
Student Government Association President Zach Mullins has observed the GCSU community and said he likes what he has seen.
“I’ve been impressed that students have respected her and the situation,” Mullins said. “It’s great that the campus community has reacted in this way.”