RENO, Nev. (AP) – 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.
Roethlisberger’s lawyer adamantly denied the allegations
Tuesday, and was quick to point out 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.”
Cornwell did not immediately reply to a phone message and e-mail
seeking more comment.
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.”
“I don’t know enough of the details, but it’s a civil lawsuit,
it’s something that we obviously will look into,” Goodell 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 win over 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.
In 2006, Roethlisberger made his first public appearance at the
tournament after having nearly died in a motorcycle accident the
month before.
He had seven hours of facial reconstruction surgery after
ramming into a car that turned in front of him on a Pittsburgh
street. He broke his jaw and nose and was thrown over the car onto
the pavement. He was cited for riding without a license and not
wearing a helmet.
AP writer Dan Nephin in Pittsburgh contributed to this
report.
