Ruthlessthugger At It Again

Roethlisberger left Georgia Friday, GBI officials say
By Craig Schneider and Kristi E. Swartz/Atlanta Journal Constitution

Milledgeville – Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger left Georgia Friday, but state investigators say they expect to interview him in a couple of days.

Roethlisberger is being investigated in the alleged sexual assault of a college student at a nightclub in Milledgeville, Tom Davis, special agent in charge of the GBI's regional office in Milledgeville told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Saturday.

This small college town is abuzz that Roethlisberger is a suspect in a sexual assault of a college student at a nightclub here.

Milledgeville police say the NFL superstar and his 20-year-old accuser visited several bars late Thursday night before the alleged attack.

The unidentified woman claims she was "sexually assaulted or sexually manipulated" by a man, police said. The woman, treated and released from Oconee Regional Medical Center, described her attacker as 6-foot-5, and 241 pounds, though she did not name Roethlisberger, who just turned 28, as the perpetrator.

"The woman approached one of our officers in the downtown area near Capital City saying she'd been sexually assaulted," by the suspect described in the police report, Milledgeville Police spokesman David McNeely told the AJC.

Police said the incident took place between 11 p.m. Thursday and 2:30 a.m. at the Capital City nightclub near downtown Milledgeville and the GCSU campus.

"He's been identified as being at the scene," Milledgeville police Deputy Chief Richard Malone said of Roethlisberger.

In what was a pretty slow weekend in the sports world the big news was Big Ben Roethlisberger possibly involved in another sexual assault, this time in Georgia. I don't know what happened at that bar and as hard as Big Ben drinks he might not know either. Odds are only the girl does. That said, this isn't a position a pro athlete with one strike in the court of public opinion needs to put himself in.

What surprises me most is the calm reaction by the public. There are seemingly no calls for Roethlisberger's head at this point. I hate to make this about me and my favorite team but if Kobe Bryant were within 500 yards of a sexual assault accusation I have no doubt a mob of angry white folks would drag him from the Staples Center and burn him at the stake in front of the Chinese Theatre. I'm not saying theres a double standard here. I'm just saying.

P.S. - For more details on Big Ben's indiscretions click here and here.