A former high school football who was wrongfully accused of rape and sentenced to six years in prison now wants the State of California to pay him for every day he had spent behind bars. Attorneys representing 26-year-old Brian Banks said their client is entitled to $100 a day for every day of his incarceration under state law.
Banks was exonerated this week after his accuser, Wanetta Gibson, admitted she had made up the whole story of segxwal assault ten years ago and had been reluctant to come forward because of a large settlement she received from the school district.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that Gibson also had been worried it would affect her relationship with her two children, now aged four and five. Banks, a once sought-after linebacker, collapsed in tears in the courtroom on Thursday when his case was moved to dismissal.
Banks' exoneration came after Gibson sent him a friend request on Facebook when he left prison in February of 2011 with a tag. In a message, she explained she wanted to 'let bygones be bygones'. Banks's lawyer, Justin Brooks, told KPCC that Gibson and Banks met and she was caught on video saying there there had been no kidnap and no rape, and would help him clear his record.
Yet she refused to repeat the story to prosecutors as she feared she would have to return a $1.5million payment she won after her mother brought a suit 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.'
The 26-year-old has said he does not plan to pursue legal action against his accuser, and Los Angeles prosecutors have said it is unlikely Gibson will be charged with making false accusations, saying it would be a tough case to prove.
Banks was jailed after Gibson accused him of rape in 2002, when he was just 16 and being heavily recruited by a number of colleges, including USC, which had offered him a full scholarship. He was on the way to the school office to talk about his college applications when he bumped into Gibson, a fellow student, and they went to a stairwell to make out, Brooks told KPCC. He pointed out that they did not have intercourse.
He explained that Banks said something to upset Gibson and they parted on bad terms. She later accused him of kidnapping her, dragging her across the school and molesting her in the stairwell. Investigators tested her but found no physical evidence of rape, Brooks said. Banks maintained they had not had sex and all segxwal contact had been consensual.
'Brian’s story is so compelling, and his case for innocence so clear, we knew we had to take this on,' said Justin Brooks. 'Brian lost a huge part of his life when he was unjustly sent to prison.
Brooks said Banks has remained on probation under electronic monitoring, has had to register as a sex offender and has had trouble getting a job. After the exoneration on Thursday, Banks added: 'My only dream in the world is just to be free... For years, I felt like a toy with the switch cut off, sitting on the shelf.'
Banks continues to train for what he hopes will be a future chance at a football career in the NFL. 'This is a kid who was a superstar,' Brooks added. 'He would be playing the NFL now if this hadn't happened.'
MEN Trust no lady!
Posted: at 28-05-2012 12:41 AM (12 years ago) | Upcoming
legionkiwi at 28-05-2012 02:10 AM (12 years ago) (m)
what a world we are living in, ladies
Posted: at 28-05-2012 02:10 AM (12 years ago) | Upcoming
women they say are the demons the arch deciever uses to draw we men closer to him. poor guy. six years in prison? chai. i will ask for the girl to be executed with immediate effect.
Posted: at 28-05-2012 02:21 AM (12 years ago) | Upcoming
freaky_man at 28-05-2012 05:23 AM (12 years ago) (m)
that why, we need to pray to God to avert trouble for us, yanga dey sleep trouble come wake..... but na this king thing dey push person to the world, because if na person like me spend 6 years inside for the crime i did not come, i will kill the girl. judge, and every body that is involve in sentencing me. unless God intervene before i could reach them
Posted: at 28-05-2012 05:23 AM (12 years ago) | Newbie
dogodajiabuja at 28-05-2012 08:04 AM (12 years ago) (m)
WOW!!!!! Congrats to this young man...he's already been through more crap than most will ever watch in any movie! BUT....If this lying woman isn't prosecuted and found guilty..then that would be a crime as well! She should serve equal time!! PERIOD!!
Posted: at 28-05-2012 08:04 AM (12 years ago) | Upcoming
dogodajiabuja at 28-05-2012 08:07 AM (12 years ago) (m)
Justice demands that she be prosecuted. There are three victims in this story that this women destroyed: 1) Brian Banks- This one is easy. She destroyed his dream of playing in the NFL. She ruined his future by getting his scholarship to USC taken away. Even if he did not make the NFL a degree from USC is huge. 2) Women who are raped- As a decent human being when a woman claims she is raped I want to believe her. After reading this story I have to have doubts. By her selfish actions she has made it that much harder for women who actually are raped to get justice. 3) The other students in the Long Beach school district- $1.5 million was stolen from them. Money that could have been spent on field trips, money that could have been spent on new textbooks, more teachers, etc instead went to an evil human being as part of a settlement for a crime that never happened.
She needs to be put in prison for what she did.
Posted: at 28-05-2012 08:07 AM (12 years ago) | Upcoming
;)
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