Police to interview Roethlisberger, seek DNA sample

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Police investigators yesterday said they are arranging to interview Pittsburgh Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger about sexual assault allegations lodged against him by a young woman, and that they will seek a DNA sample.

During a brief news conference outside the police station, Milledgeville police Chief Woodrow W. Blue, Jr., said Mr. Roethlisberger and his lawyer have been cooperating with the investigation and that Mr. Roethlisberger and seven other witnesses will be interviewed in the next two to three days.

Chief Blue did not say where the interviews would be conducted.

Mr. Roethlisberger was raised in Findlay and attended Miami University of Ohio.

After the news conference, one of Mr. Roethlisberger's attorneys, Edward T.M. Garland of Atlanta, released a statement saying, “The facts show that there was no criminal activity. No sexual assault occurred. The truth of the events should cause this investigation to end without a criminal charge.”

A 20-year-old student at Georgia College & State University told police early Friday morning that Mr. Roethlisberger, 28, had sexually assaulted her at a nightclub near the college campus. Police at the scene interviewed Mr. Roethlisberger and members of his party and permitted them to leave.

The woman was taken to Oconee Regional Medical Center in Milledgeville, where she was treated and released.

Police yesterday would not provide details of what the woman told them happened, but Tom Davis, special agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in Milledgeville, confirmed that she has hired an attorney.

Agent Davis said authorities are reviewing videos taken from various Milledgeville nightclubs that Mr. Roethlisberger and his party visited late Thursday and early Friday, but would not say what, if anything, they revealed.

Mr. Roethlisberger, who owns a vacation home about 30 miles north of Milledgeville on Lake Oconee, also is being sued by a woman who claims he raped her in 2008 at a hotel-casino in Lake Tahoe, an allegation he strongly denies.

After Monday's news conference, Carl Cansino, a criminal defense lawyer in Milledgeville, said it could be days before investigators decide whether they have evidence to support filing charges in the case.

“The fact that some sort of DNA is going to be collected is telling because the only reason to take a DNA sample is to compare it to something else,” Mr. Cansino said yesterday. “But the district attorney, I'm certain, will make absolutely sure that before he files any charges that he believes that he can prove those charges.”

Mr. Cansino said there are two ways a person can be arrested.

“First, if the police department, through its investigation, believes a crime has been committed and seeks an arrest warrant from a magistrate or judge,” he said. “The second way would be if the district attorney decides charges are appropriate and takes the matter before the grand jury for an indictment. … Most felonies, including sexual assault, have to go before the grand jury. But it's a one-sided procedure and all the district attorney has to prove is ‘probable cause,' which is a very low burden to prove.

“I can tell you one thing, and that is he is bound, just as all lawyers are bound, not to try the case in the press. You want to try the case before a jury. And these people in Baldwin County, where the case would be tried, you don't want them to make their minds up ahead of time.”

Mr. Cansino said he expected that the authorities' interviews with Mr. Roethlisberger and the other witnesses would be conducted “wherever it is most convenient for the people involved,” and that very likely would take place in the Atlanta office of Mr. Roethlisberger's attorneys.

Those attorneys are Mr. Garland and Donald F. Samuel.

Mr. Garland represented Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, who was accused in 2000 of a double murder in Atlanta. Mr. Lewis pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice and testified against two co-defendants who were later acquitted.