Lawyers: Respect Roethlisberger accuser’s privacy
Attorneys for the woman who accuses Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of sexual assault said that she did the right thing by going to police and asked for privacy in a statement Tuesday.
Atlanta-based Attorneys Lee Parks and David Walbert said in the statement released to several media outlets that woman is assisting police. They said they were hired to advise the woman and her family while police investigate the allegations.
The 20-year-old told police that the two-time Super Bowl winner, who had been out barhopping with friends, assaulted her early Friday at a nightclub in Milledgeville, Ga. Roethlisberger has not been charged.
"Their daughter has done the right thing and reported this matter to the police," reads the statement released by the attorneys' Atlanta law firm, Parks, Chesin & Walbert. "She has been, and will be, available to the authorities to assist them in the criminal investigation. While the matter is under investigation, we ask you to respect her privacy, keep her name out of the press and allow the family space and time to heal."
Ed Garland, an attorney for Roethlisberger, has said the quarterback is innocent of any crime.
"The facts show that there was no criminal activity. No sexual assault occurred," attorney Garland said in a statement Monday.
Milledgeville police have said they expect to interview Roethlisberger in the next several days and are planning to take a DNA sample from him.
Roethlisberger, who owns a home about 30 miles north of Milledgeville on Lake Oconee, is also being sued by a woman who claims he raped her in 2008 at a hotel-casino in Lake Tahoe hotel and casino, an allegation he strongly denies.
Related information:
Privacy (from Latin privatus 'separated from the rest, deprived of something, esp. office, participation in the government', from privo 'to deprive') is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, but share basic common themes. Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity, the wish to remain unnoticed or unidentified in the public realm. When something is private to a person, it usually means there is something within them that is considered inherently special or personally sensitive. The degree to which private information is exposed therefore depends on how the public will receive this information, which differs between places and over time. Privacy can be seen as an aspect of security — one in which trade-offs between the interests of one group and another can become particularly clear.
The right against unsanctioned invasion of privacy by the government, corporations or individuals is part of many countries' privacy laws, and in some cases, constitutions. Almost all countries have laws which in some way limit privacy; an example of this would be law concerning taxation, which normally require the sharing of information about personal income or earnings. In some countries individual privacy may conflict with freedom of speech laws and some laws may require public disclosure of information which would be considered private in other countries and cultures. Privacy may be voluntarily sacrificed, normally in exchange for perceived benefits and very often with specific dangers and losses, although this is a very strategic view of human relationships. Academics who are economists, evolutionary theorists, and research psychologists describe revealing privacy as a 'voluntary sacrifice', where sweepstakes or competitions are involved. In the business world, a person may give personal details (often for advertising purposes) in order to enter a gamble of winning a prize. Information which is voluntarily shared and is later stolen or misused can lead to identity theft.
The concept of privacy is most often associated with Western culture, English and North American in particular. According to some researchers, the concept of privacy sets Anglo-American culture apart even from other Western European cultures such as French or Italian.[1] The concept is not universal and remained virtually unknown in some cultures until recent times. A word "privacy" is sometimes regarded as untranslatable[2] by linguists. Many languages lack a specific word for "privacy". Such languages either use a complex description to translate the term (such as Russian combine meaning of уединение - solitude, секретность - secrecy, and частная жизнь - private life) or borrow English "privacy" (as Indonesian Privasi or Italian la privacy)
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