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Jul 21, 2009 6:30 pm US/Eastern
Attorney: Easier To Win Civil Cases Than Criminal
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
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Ben Roethlisberger is named in a civil lawsuit filed in Nevada.
KDKA
Rape is a crime in every state.
But most rapes never get reported -- let alone prosecuted.
Lawyers will tell you, it's easier to get a jury to rule in favor of a victim in a civil lawsuit than a criminal trial.
That may help explain why Andrea McNulty filed this case rather than rely on the authorities to charge the celebrity football player, Ben Roethlisberger, with a crime.
In at least one way, Roethlisberger is lucky this is a civil suit and not a criminal one.
"What's important to note is that in a criminal case, if successful, the state takes away someone's freedom," says Pittsburgh attorney Rob Peirce, "where in a civil case, the only damages are money or compensation."
But it's still a big deal.
OJ Simpson was found not guilty of murder but still lost a civil lawsuit and most of his money.
That's because it's a lot easier for an alleged victim like Andrea McNulty to win a civil case.
"In a civil case, you have to prove the case by the preponderance of the evidence. And to understand that, imagine the scales of the justice," explains Peirce.
"If the scales are even, and the plaintiff is successful, they will tip ever so slightly into his or her favor. But in a criminal case where it must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the scales have to greatly tip in the state's favor."
But while you don't need as much to beat Roethlisberger in a civil case, he's helped that McNulty never went to the cops over the alleged rape.
"It's a piece of evidence," says Pittsburgh attorney Sam Cordes. "If I were defending Ben Roethlisberger, it's the first thing I would bring up, and I would bring it up again and again and again."
Still the failure to go to authorities at the time doesn't mean she wasn't raped -- only one in seven women ever report a rape, notes Cordes.
"It's that -- and in the sexual harassment context -- it's way less than than. It's probably one in 50, I believe, of people that complain -- and for various reasons, it's embarrassment and the whole nine yards."
But in a civil lawsuit -- the dirty linen, sexual and otherwise, of both McNulty and Roethlisberger -- is likely to get exposed.
"You can look and see if there is a pattern that's going on," says Cordes. "That's a piece of evidence. Juries in these cases repeatedly ask, well, has this person done it before."
Here's another big difference.
In a criminal case, the defendant can always claim the Fifth Amendment to not testify.
That's really hard to do in a civil lawsuit.
One thing is clear -- if this case goes forward, it's going to cost Ben Roethlisberger a lot of money in attorney fees, win or lose.
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