not even sure how I would handle the rest of my life knowing what was stolen. Also don't understand what would cause his lawyers to suggest taking the deal
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- The kidnap-rape conviction of a once-promising prep football star was dismissed Thursday following a recantation by his accuser.
Brian Banks collapsed in sobs on the counsel table during a court hearing where a prosecutor quickly conceded the decade-old case and moved for the dismissal.
In the summer of 2002, Banks' future looked bright: He was a 17-year-old high school football star being heavily recruited by a number of colleges. But in a single day that changed with the accusations of kidnapping and rape by a female student.
He maintained there was no rape and their sexual contact was consensual, but his lawyer urged him to plead no contest rather than risk a sentence of 41 years to life in prison if convicted. He followed the advice and went to prison for six years, shattering his dreams of gridiron glory.
Lawyers for the California Innocence Project were prepared Thursday to argue he should be exonerated.
In a strange turn of events, the woman who accused him a decade ago friended him on Facebook when he got out of prison. Wanetta Gibson explained she wanted to "let bygones be bygones."
According to documents in the case, she met with Banks and said she had lied; there had been no kidnap and no rape and she offered to help him clear his record.
But she subsequently 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.
She was quoted as telling 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."
Justin Brooks, a lawyer who heads the innocence project, said that Banks has remained on probation, under electronic monitoring, has had to register as a sex offender and has had trouble getting a job.
He said Banks continues to train for what he hopes will be a future chance at a football career.
He maintained there was no rape and their sexual contact was consensual, but his lawyer urged him to plead no contest rather than risk a sentence of 41 years to life in prison if convicted. He followed the advice and went to prison for six years, shattering his dreams of gridiron glory.
not even sure how I would handle the rest of my life knowing what was stolen. Also don't understand what would cause his lawyers to suggest taking the deal
I thought this was going to be the Briana Banks story. Am disappointed.
glad i'm not the only one that thought that too! i heard she did a scene early on in her career that traumatized her and caused her to change her porn name.
She talked about it on her appearance on The Howard Stern Show if I am not mistaken. Anyways, she did a scene with Max Hardcore (nuff said). After that, she left the industry for about 4 months or something like that and changed her name.moar details.
Brian Banks logged onto Facebook last year, and a new friend request startled him.
It was the woman who, nearly a decade ago, accused him of rape when they were both students at Long Beach Poly High School.
Banks had recently ended a five-year stint in prison for the rape, and was unemployed and beaten down. So he replied with a question: Would she meet with him and a private investigator? She agreed.
At the meeting, which was secretly recorded, Wanetta Gibson said she had lied.
"No," she was quoted as saying, "he did not rape me."
That admission set off an extraordinary chain of events that culminated Thursday morning. A Superior Court judge dismissed Banks’ conviction, undoing 10 years of turmoil in a hearing that lasted less than a minute.
Banks, 26, bowed his head and trembled, his eyes flooded with tears. His girlfriend, Pamela Soladar, yelped with joy. They made their way to each other and embraced, Banks too overwhelmed to speak.
“You made it,” she whispered to him.
It had been a long, maddening journey.
In the summer of 2002, Banks was considered a top college football prospect. A 6-foot-4, 225-pound middle linebacker at Long Beach Poly High, Banks had been courted by USC, UCLA and other football powerhouses.
He was attending summer school, and asked his teacher to leave class and make a phone call, court papers said. Then Banks, a senior, ran into Gibson, a sophomore.
Banks said they fooled around, but that their sexual contact was consensual. His mother, Leomia Myers, believed him, and said she sold her condo and her car to pay for his defense.
“I knew I didn’t raise my son to do something so horrendous,” she said.
Gibson’s version shifted over the years. She could not be reached Thursday for comment.
Initially, court papers said, she told a classmate in a note containing misspellings: “he picked me up and put me in the elevator and he took me down stairs and he pulled my pants down and he rapped me and he didn’t have an condom on and I was a virgin now Im not.”
As the legal process wore on, Banks had a choice. He could take the he-said-she-said case to trial and, if he was convicted, risk being sentenced to 41 years to life in prison. Or, as his lawyer advised, he could accept a plea deal.
Banks pleaded no contest to one count of forcible rape. He was incarcerated for five years and, after his release, had to register as a sex offender.
Had Gibson not contacted Banks via Facebook, it’s unlikely their paths would have crossed again.
According to Banks and his private investigator, Gibson refused to tell prosecutors that she’d lied, lest she have to return the money she and her family had won in court. She also said she feared what her children would think of her, court papers said.
But based on the new evidence, the California Innocence Project took on Banks' case.
So what now? The guy's life is ruined, the girl gets away scot-free?
So what now? The guy's life is ruined, the girl gets away scot-free?
I really don't understand the logic here, how can a person get a reduced sentence if he pleads no contest/guilty? I mean the crime has already been committed. IMO, this policy has caused more problems rather than improve the situation.