Everybody remember this
http://old.post-gazette.com/localnews/20020912bettis0912p4.asp
Scheme against Bettis alleged
Students tell police of sexual blackmail
Thursday, September 12, 2002
By Dennis B. Roddy, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Two former students at Penn State's McKeesport campus have told Greensburg police one of their teachers spoke openly of a plan to blackmail Steelers running back Jerome Bettis by setting him up for a false sexual assault charge.
Police last night re-interviewed the woman who claims that Bettis sexually assaulted her on Aug. 21, and they later questioned the Penn State instructor, who sources say is a relative of the woman. The relative earlier had been a key witness against Bettis.
Greensburg Police Chief Richard Baric last night refused to discuss specifics of the case but acknowledged that police are exploring new leads.
"We've had some significant information that has come to our attention that has prompted us to do some interviews with heretofore uninterviewed individuals," Baric said last night.
The former students' stories marked the latest turn in an already confusing investigation that had cast a pall over one of the most popular members of the Steelers.
No charges have been filed against Bettis, who has denied any sexual assault of the woman, whom he met while drinking at Bobby Dale's Lounge, a popular Greensburg nightspot.
The woman told police she had approached Bettis to ask him to autograph a football and that he lured her into his Land Rover and drove her to a parking lot where he forced her to perform a sex act.
According to the students' account, the instructor had previously told them of attempting to lure a Steelers player into a fight at Bobby Dale's in hopes of filing a lawsuit and winning a large settlement. Sometime in March, they said, he came upon a new scheme -- getting a woman to engage in sex with Bettis and then accusing him of rape in hopes of winning an out-of-court settlement.
Sources close to the investigation said that additional witnesses beyond the former students have also contacted police with new information about a conspiracy to frame Bettis.
According to information obtained last night by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the woman left the bar with Bettis and then returned, where she informed her relative, the Penn State instructor, that she had been sexually assaulted.
Police are expected to present their findings tomorrow to Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck, who will make a final decision on what to do with the case.
Both Bettis and the Steelers management have insisted he is innocent of any criminal wrongdoing.
Neither Bettis nor his attorney, Robert DelGreco Jr., could be reached for comment last night.
Dennis Roddy can be reached at
droddy@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1965.
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