Ben Roethlisberger Admits Sexual Contact But Not Intercourse with Accuser, According to TV Station
Ben Roethlisberger talks to police, according to news station.
March 11, 2010 -- Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger told police that he did not have sexual intercourse with the woman who has accused him of assault, according to anonymous sources cited by KDKA-TV.
The sources reportedly told the station that Roethlisberger spoke with Milledgeville, Ga. police on the night of the alleged assault and admitted sexual contact with the woman but said that it was not consummated. KDKA reports the sources said Roethlisberger told police the woman slipped and fell afterward, injuring her head.
Diane Kelly, spokeswoman for the Milledgeville Police, declined to comment on the case and whether police have interviewed Roethlisberger.
Legal experts tell ABC News that if reports of Roethlisberger's police interview are true, his situation may be more complicated than it was before he talked to them.
"This just illustrates the fact that making statements to the police, when suspicions are cast upon you, are never a good idea," criminal defense attorney Gerald A. Shargel told ABC News.
Shargel has argued many high-profile cases, most recently Joe Halderman's extortion case involving David Letterman. "The conventional view is no good could come from a police interview," he said.
Trial attorney Isabelle Kirshner, a partner at Clayman & Rosenberg LLP, agrees that Roethlisberger's statements, if true, may harm his case by "providing a link in the chain of events that corroborate with what the victim said."
"Every time you acknowledge one element, it opens the lines to a whole other line of inquiry," Kirshner said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has begun its review of videos from the Milledgeville nightclubs that Roethlisberger visited the night of the alleged incident, Special Agent Tom Davis announced in a press conference on Monday.
But on Wednesday afternoon, the lawyer for one of two off-duty Pennsylvania law enforcement officers who accompanied Roethlisberger the night of the incident came forward and said they did not see anything inappropriate occur.
Roethlisberger hired two high-profile criminal defense attorneys on Monday after a 20-year-old Georgia College & State University student told police Roethlisberger allegedly sexually assaulted her on March 5, at a nightclub in Milledgeville.
Calls to Roethlisberger's attorneys, Edward T.M. Garland and Donald F. Samuel, were not immediately returned today.
On Monday Garland released a statement which read: "The facts show that there was no criminal activity. No sexual assault occurred. We are cooperating with the investigation. Ben is completely innocent of any crime. The truth of the events should cause this investigation to end without a criminal charge. I will not go into details at this time, but will in the future."
Milledgeville Police Chief Woodrow Blue said at a press conference on Monday that Roethlisberger and his attorney were cooperating with police. Blue said Roethlisberger was expected to be interviewed in the coming days.
The Steelers franchise continues to stand behind their star quarterback. On Monday Steelers' President Art Rooney II issued this statement:
"All of us in the Steelers family are concerned about the recent incident involving Ben Roethlisberger in Georgia. We cannot comment on any of the specifics until law enforcement's investigation is concluded. Certainly, we will continue to closely monitor the situation."
Roethlisberger has not been charged.
ABC News' Jen Wlach and Cleopatra Andreadis contributed to this report.