Rhonda Cook and Bill Rankin of the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION report Monday morning that Ben Roethlisberger has hired the same Atlanta attorney who got Ray Lewis off on murder charges in the ATL in 2000.
(SbB Photos of Roethlisberger at Milledgeville bar before incident)
Veteran Atlanta defense lawyer Ed Garland confirmed Monday that he is representing Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on allegations that he sexually assaulted a Georgia College & State University student.
Garland told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he has talked to Roethlisberger and already interviewed some witnesses. Garland said he would have no further comment.
In 2000, Garland represented Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, who was charged with murder in a Buckhead street fight after a night of post-Super Bowl celebrating. In mid-trial, on June 5, 2000, Fulton County prosecutors dropped the murder charges against Lewis, allowing him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge.
Lewis isn’t the only celebrity NFL player Garland has repped.
Four years later, Garland represented another Baltimore Raven, Atlanta native Jamal Lewis, who was facing federal drug charges. Jamal Lewis pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of using a cellphone to facilitate a drug transaction and was sentenced to a minimum-security prison for four months after the 2004 NFL season was over.
The charge is serious, so Roethlisberger is taking appropriate action with this hire. I wouldn’t read into it anything more than that.
11:10 am on March 8th, 2010
I forgot that Ray Lewis murdered somebody.
11:44 am on March 8th, 2010
Trends are dangerous Ben…
11:56 am on March 8th, 2010
rape me once shame on you…
rape me twice, time for celebrity rehab. It’s a real disese…with doctors and everything.
12:33 pm on March 8th, 2010
Garland also got TI’s sentence reduced to a year and a day.
1:20 pm on March 8th, 2010
“The charge is serious, so Roethlisberger is taking appropriate action with this hire. I wouldn’t read into it anything more than that.” I thought the whole point of the article was that we’re supposed to read into it. It’s kinda’ like ‘I’m not sayin’…I’m just sayin’.
Any lawyer will tell you, often unapologetically and with no sense of irony, that truth is irrelevant in litigation. Guilty or not, he should get the nastiest, savviest bulldog of a lawyer he can afford.
1:24 pm on March 8th, 2010
I agree w/ Ashdex esq. Although he probably wouldn’t the much lawyer is he simply stopped sexually assaulting people for a few days.
1:30 pm on March 8th, 2010
ben’s a crumb w/women, just ask the co-eds from Miami after he won his first superbowl he would go hang out in oxford lamely trying to pick up chicks, not that successful maybe that’s why he forces his fat ass on the women he bar trawls for!
1:56 pm on March 8th, 2010
The bottom line is, as we learned from Indiana and to a lesser degree Colorado, if the rape kit comes back showing intercourse showing it might have been non-consensual, Big Ben is going to get banged. The police dept is in a pickle, because if they do not pursue the charges, it will appear that they gave preferential treatment. If they do proceed, then they will be accused of a witch hunt.
2:25 pm on March 8th, 2010
Don’t get me wrong - he’s an idiot for putting himself in that position - AGAIN! Why a high visibility veteran QB is trolling in those places is odd and just begs for trouble. But being creepy is not a crime and I have to give him the benefit of the doubt.
2:33 pm on March 8th, 2010
Ashdex why do you give him the benefit of a doubt? He trolls college bars. He is a 28 year-old celebrity who finds comfort mixing with 17-22 year-olds.
I didn’t believe the first girl in Tahoe. But I have a tough time giving Ben the benefit of a doubt when he consistently puts himself in bad positions and constantly surrounds himself with young naive girls.
2:44 pm on March 8th, 2010
i.e. how long could we give Michael Jackson the benefit of a doubt when he kept putting himself in intimate situations with children??
Can you give Tiger the benefit of a doubt after 1 woman comes forward? Maybe but two, three
I don’t think women are stupid enough to make false allegations (perjury) just for a little cash. I think those opportunists would have left the small Georgian town if that was their plan.
9:07 am on March 9th, 2010
Nice headline. Why does he need to lawyer to do that for him? I thought that’s what he had the 20-year girl for? Thank you…Thank you…
12:36 pm on March 9th, 2010
“I don’t think women are stupid enough to make false allegations (perjury) just for a little cash.”
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHa!
6:36 pm on March 9th, 2010
Only Ben and this young woman know what the truth is at this point.
Yes, Ben put himself in a position where this kind of thing could happen, mind you while still fighting a similar charge in Tahoe. Stupid decision on Ben’s part w/o question. However that doesn’t make him guilty, whether you like him or not. Before you rush to judgement, see how the facts unfold.
Because don’t forget what happened to the Duke Lacrosse team. Stupid decision YES, but assault and rape NO. So no matter how bad the situation looks, stupid does not equal rape or assault.
Peace.