All eyes on Georgia DA Fredric Bright today as he decides on Ben Roethlisberger
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File photo of Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Fredric Bright, who has been given the case involving Ben Roethlisberger and a college student accusing him of sexual assault.
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MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. -- Fredric D. Bright has seen this day coming for more than a month. The day when he would go before a throng of reporters and television cameras at the Baldwin County Courthouse and tell them -- and everyone waiting pensively in Steelers Nation -- whether he will file sexual assault charges against Ben Roethlisberger.
His news conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. today.
The spotlight may be intense, but people who know Mr. Bright say he will look into it without blinking. After nearly 30 years as a prosecutor, half of them as Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit district attorney, he has a reputation of a fair but fiercely determined champion of the law who has handled his share of high-profile cases.
"Fred will do what is right, regardless of the consequences," said Peter J. Skandalakis, the district attorney for the neighboring Coweta Judicial Circuit. "He will call it as he sees it. No politics, no cameras are going to influence him. When he makes up his mind, he will move in the right direction."
Mr. Roethlisberger stands accused of sexual assault by a 20-year-old woman, who told police he accosted her in a Milledgeville nightclub early March 5.
The Milledgeville Police Department and agents of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation collected evidence, reviewed videotapes and conducted numerous interviews. They finished their investigation last week and forwarded their findings to Mr. Bright, district attorney for the eight counties that comprise the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit.
Mr. Bright has several options. He can drop the case if he believes the evidence does not prove that a crime was committed. He can go before a grand jury in pursuit of felony charges of sexual assault, punishable by a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison. Or he can file a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery, "the nonconsensual touching of a person's body in a sexual manner," and ask Mr. Roethlisberger to surrender to authorities.
First Published April 12, 2010 12:00 am
