This poor man. A false accusation stole years from his life and shattered his dream of playing in the NFL. I saw him interviewed on the Today Show this morning and he is handling this all with way more maturity than I could ever show. I would want revenge and I really hope they find some way to make this woman pay for what she did. Even if they can't bring charges up against her, she should be required to pay that settlement money back somehow.
LONG BEACH, Calif. — A former high school football star whose dreams of a pro career were shattered by a rape conviction burst into tears Thursday as a judge threw out the charge that sent him to prison for more than five years.
Brian Banks, now 26, pleaded no contest 10 years ago on the advice of his lawyer after a childhood friend falsely accused him of attacking her on their high school campus.
In a strange turn of events, the woman, Wanetta Gibson, friended him on Facebook when he got out of prison.
During an initial meeting with him, she said she had lied; there had been no kidnap and no rape and she offered to help him clear his record, court records state.
But she refused to repeat the story to prosecutors because she feared she would have to return a $1.5 million payment from a civil suit brought by her mother against Long Beach schools.
During a second meeting that was secretly videotaped, she told Banks, "`I will go through with helping you, but it's like at the same time all that money they gave us, I mean gave me, I don't want to have to pay it back,'" according to Freddie Parish, a defense investigator who was at the meeting.
It was uncertain whether Gibson will have to return the money and unlikely she would be prosecuted for making the false accusation so long ago, when she was 15.
Gibson did not attend the hearing and she could not be reached for comment. Prosecutors and defense attorneys said they were unable to find her recently.
Banks, once a star middle linebacker at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, had attracted the interest of such college football powerhouses as the University of Southern California, Ohio State University and the University of Michigan, according to the website Rivals.com, which tracks the recruiting of high school football and basketball players.
Banks said he had verbally agreed to attend USC on a scholarship when he was arrested.
He still hopes to play professional football and has been working out regularly. His attorney Justin Brooks appealed to NFL teams to give him a chance.
"He has the speed and the strength. He certainly has the heart," Brooks said. "I hope he gets the attention of people in the sports world."
Gil Brandt, an NFL draft consultant, said Banks would be eligible to sign with any team that might show interest. However, his years away from the game will be hard to overcome.
"History tells us guys who come back after one or two years away when they go into the service find it awfully hard," Brandt said. "And this has been much longer a time."
Brandt compared the challenge to someone who has been out of high school for years trying to get an A in their first class in college.
Banks said outside court that he had lost all hope of proving his innocence until Gibson contacted him.
"It's been a struggle. But I'm unbroken and I'm still here today," the tall, muscular Banks said, tears flowing down his face.
He recalled being shocked and speechless on the day Gibson reached out to him after he had been released from prison, having served five years and two months.
"I thought maybe it wasn't real," he said. "How could she be contacting me?"
He said he knew that if he became angry when he met with her it wouldn't help, so he struggled to keep calm.
"I stopped what I was doing and got down on my knees and prayed to God to help me play my cards right," he said.
In court, Deputy District Attorney Brentford Ferreira told Superior Court Judge Mark C. Kim that prosecutors agreed the case should be thrown out. Kim dismissed it immediately.
Banks had tried to win release while he was in prison, but Brooks, a law professor and head of the California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law in San Diego, said he could not have been exonerated without the woman coming forward and recanting her story.
Brooks said it was the first case he had ever taken in which the defendant had already served his time and had been free for a number of years.
Banks remained on probation, however, and was still wearing his electronic monitoring bracelet at the hearing. His lawyer said the first thing the two planned to do was report to probation officials and have it removed.
"The charges are dismissed now," Brooks said. "It's as if it didn't happen. ... It was the shortest, greatest proceeding I've ever been part of."
Banks had been arrested after Gibson said he met her in a school hallway and urged her to come into an elevator with him. The two had been friends since middle school and were in the habit of making out in a school stairwell, according to court papers.
There were contradictions in Gibson's story, as she told some people the rape happened in the elevator and others that it happened in the stairwell.
A kidnapping enhancement was added to the case because of the allegation Banks had taken her to the stairwell. That enhancement also was thrown out Thursday.
Outside court, Banks donned a sweat shirt that read "Innocent," as several friends and family members wept. His parents were jubilant, and Banks thanked them for standing by him.
"I know the trauma, the stress that I've been through, but I can't imagine what it's like to have your child torn from you," he said. "I don't know what I would have done without my parents."
Wow. I sure as hell hope she has to pay that money back. She lied and the lawsuit hinged on that lie. Therefore she is no longer entitled to that money.
Post by PinkSquirrel on May 25, 2012 9:11:07 GMT -5
That poor guy. I really hope she has to pay the money back and I would hope that they would be able to press some kind of charges. I don't care if she was 15 at the time of the initial lie, she's continued to lie about it for 10 years.
I was also thinking that if any NFL team wanted some great publicity, they should invite him to camp or something. Sure, he's likely rusty and his chances of making a team are slim to none, but he deserves at least that chance.
And even if that doesn't happen, I really hope he can get his life together now. I read in another article that he's been unemployed for years since being out of prison and I'm sure his sex offender status had a lot to do with that. But all those years of unemployment will make it tough for him to find a job. I just get more and more pissed off thinking about this case.
Post by jessiespano on May 25, 2012 9:23:37 GMT -5
She is a horrible excuse of a woman. It makes me so angry to read about women who lie about rape/sexaul assult. This is why a lot of women who are actually assulted don't come forward. It sets everyone back.
I'm assuming she must have felt bad because why else would she have reached out to him at all. Granted not bad enough to actually do the right thing as they had to secretly record her confession. I just feel sick that not only did he spend all that time in prision, he lost all of his dreams and then had to carry the sex offender label around.
Something tells me this guy wouldn't care that it's merely a pity tryout. Maybe you're right, but I would not be shocked to see an organization with some recent negative publicity (say, the New Orleans Saints), letting him have a tryout. What's one more distraction for the Saints??? ;-)
Eh, I'm not sure that 1) an NFL team would want that kind of publicity (aka, a distraction) and 2) it's basically a pity try out and do they want to waste time/effort on that?
Maybe not as a player, but maybe there is something he can do within the NFL? After all, if they can take Michael Vick back, they can do something here...
She is a horrible excuse of a woman. It makes me so angry to read about women who lie about rape/sexaul assult. This is why a lot of women who are actually assulted don't come forward. It sets everyone back.
This. And when victims do come forward, people question whether their claims are truthful.
I hope she has to return every cent of the money (which probably means she'll have her wages garnished for the rest of her life) and I hope he sues her and gets some cash too.
She is disgusting. I am so furious at this story. I hope she has to pay back every last cent AND she has to serve jail time. Could she be charged with any form of perjury?
I hope he gets a chance to get his life on track. I can't even imagine.
I really, really hope he gets "something" from all of this. Whether it's an NFL tryout, or a job offer, or what - I hope people in the position to do so reach out to him.
How can she not be forced to pay that money back, whether it's to him or the school district?
No rape happened, there should have been no conviction, the schools have no liability.
What a bunch of horseshit.
Because a jury had a chance to decide whether they felt her story was credible and the decided it was. So legally, she doesn't have to return the money. She should be prosecuted for perjury and then he should sue her for malicious prosecution and defamation, but those are other actions. "Give the money back" is not a good solution to this problem. New causes of action are, though.
Post by ChillyMcFreeze on May 25, 2012 12:01:58 GMT -5
I'd rather see her tried and convicted of perjury and more than to just have her wages garnished. Financial discomfort is not a fraction of the hell this woman should have to pay. I got a little choked up at how gracious and mature Banks is. What an awful thing to happen to a kid who hadn't even gotten started with his life yet.
How horrible. That woman needs to be thrown in jail and pay HIM the money. And I can't believe they could find him guilty with no real evidence.
Well since he pleaded no contest and the had a witness against him, not a whole lot for the jury to argue with. What was his lawyer thinking? If you're innocent, you plead innocent.
How horrible. That woman needs to be thrown in jail and pay HIM the money. And I can't believe they could find him guilty with no real evidence.
Well since he pleaded no contest and the had a witness against him, not a whole lot for the jury to argue with. What was his lawyer thinking? If you're innocent, you plead innocent.
Well since he pleaded no contest and the had a witness against him, not a whole lot for the jury to argue with. What was his lawyer thinking? If you're innocent, you plead innocent.
The plea he made maintains his innocence but admits that there is enough evidence to convict him.