Accuser Questioned
Reno, NV – The woman suing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for alleged sexual assault has been accused of bragging about having consensual sex with him to a co-worker.
According to court documents filed late Friday, Angela Antonetti said the woman who made the rape claim “did not appear to be upset, stressed-out or nervous” about her time with the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback during a 2008 celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe.
Antonetti said her Harrah’s hotel-casino co-worker “appeared happy and boastful,” and later said she thought she might be pregnant from the encounter. Antonetti made the remarks in a sworn statement attached to a motion to move the case from Reno to Minden, Nev.
“Rather than indicating that she was afraid or apprehensive about this, (the woman) expressed to me that she was hoping for a ‘little Roethlisberger,” said Antonetti, who worked with her at Harrah’s between 2006 and 2009.
er Cal Dunlap, who represents the woman, declined to comment Saturday.
“We’ll just deal with it in the lawsuit,” he said.
In her lawsuit, the 31-year-old Nevada woman says she was working as a VIP hostess during the tournament when the two-time Super Bowl winner raped her in a hotel penthouse across the street from the golf course – a claim he vehemently denies.
She also alleges Harrah’s officials orchestrated a cover-up, and worked to silence her and undermine her credibility rather than investigate her claims.
But the motion, filed by Roethlisberger’s Nevada lawyer John Echeverria, says her claims were an attempt to exploit his celebrity status and secure an “extortionate payday.”
Antonetti said the woman’s emotional collapse had nothing to do with a rape but resulted from a failed relationship with a married man and then a long-distance relationship that turned out to be a hoax.
Antonetti claims the woman became “very emotionally distraught” afterward, and took a leave of absence from Harrah’s.
Antonetti says she wanted “to set the record straight” after hearing about the claims against Roethlisberger.
Posted: 8/9/09 8:15PM ET