Lawsuit: A Woman Scorned and Calculated Vengence?
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — A lawyer for several Lake Tahoe hotel employees named in a civil suit that accuses Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (FSY) of rape says the lawsuit and timing of events are the "cold, calculated vengeance of a woman scorned."
Margo Piscevich, in a motion filed Monday in Washoe District Court in Reno, further argues that Andrea McNulty's affidavit, filed last week, is "nothing more or less than media grandstanding" and should be stricken from the court record.
But lawyers for Roethlisberger and the Harrah's defendants counter that e-mails contained in the court record from McNulty to Hyder and others show
she was infatuated with Roethlisberger and boasted of having sex with him.
The e-mails, Piscevich said in Monday's motions, tell the "whole pathetic story."
Piscevich said the chronology of events suggests the actions of a woman scorned.
After having sex with Roethlisberger in July 2008 and telling a friend, former Harrah's hotel director Stacy Dingman, that Roethlisberger is "hot," Roethlisberger then ignores her, Piscevich said.In January, after the Steelers win the AFC Championship and prepare for the Super Bowl, she changes her story, telling Dingman that Roethlisberger assaulted her, Piscevich said in the motion.Piscevich said McNulty's suit was filed just as the NFL preseason was about to open, and that her affidavit was filed one day before the Steelers' 2009 opener last Thursday.
The timing appears to be more than coincidence — it seems to be rather the cold, calculated vengeance of a woman scorned," Piscevich wrote.
Dingman's lawyers, in a separate motion filed Monday, argue the allegations against her lack merit and should be dismissed.
McNulty alleges besides participating in the cover-up, Dingman told others at some point that McNulty was treated for schizophrenia, attorney Dora Lane said.
Lane said Dingman denies the allegation, and attached an exhibit showing
the accuser in late 2008 had been prescribed anti-psychotic medications that are used to treat schizophrenia, among other things.Previous filings from Dunlap, McNulty's lawyer, included medical records and notes from a doctor who in December 2008 concluded she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had suffered hallucinations after she learned that a soldier she had been courting via the Internet turned out to be a hoax.
Later handwritten notes by the doctor in January 2009 include a notation, "describes a sexual assault that occurred last summer."
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