Probe continues into Roethlisberger assault accusation
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MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. -- Not here in this inconspicuous, modest antebellum city.
Not here does someone like dapper Atlanta private investigator Charles Mittelstadt often spin his polished silver Porsche into a parking space on Hancock Street, in the heart of the business district of this Middle Georgia college town of 20,000.
Not here do reporters employed by some of the country's most recognizable acronyms -- CNN, TMZ, ESPN -- often troll the streets for sources. Not here do satellite trucks roar in on Interstates 75 and 20, then onto narrow U.S. Route 441 to set up shop anywhere they can squeeze into a parking space.
"You could say this past week has been quite a change from what we are used to," said Mayor Richard Bentley, who keeps his office not in City Hall but down the block at his independent insurance agency.
Triggering that change was the visit of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, 28, and a subsequent sexual assault accusation from a 20-year-old female student at Georgia College & State University.
There are few public certainties about events involving Mr. Roethlisberger and the woman inside the Capital City nightclub during the early morning hours of March 5.
Mr. Roethlisberger was in Milledgeville for a night on the town after making the half-hour trip here from his home in Reynolds Plantation on Lake Oconee, an upscale community near Greensboro, Ga. He was accompanied by Steelers tackle Willie Colon, off-duty Coraopolis police Officer Anthony J. Barravecchio, off-duty Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Ed Joyner and several other men who have not been identified.
What is known: The woman has accused Mr. Roethlisberger of sexually assaulting her in a VIP area of the club. Mr. Roethlisberger has not been arrested or charged. He has secured the services of high-profile Atlanta attorney Ed Garland. The woman, who is not named because the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault, has hired Atlanta attorneys David Walbert and A. Lee Parks Jr.
First Published March 14, 2010 12:00 am
