Brian Banks: False allegations and a life almost ruined

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<img src="brianbanks.jpg" alt="Brain Banks: Flaso Allegations and a life almost ruined"> — Freed: A one-time promising football star, Brian Banks, weeps after his rape conviction was dismissed in court. He was just 16 when a childhood friend accused him of kidnapping and raping her at school Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2149462/Brian-Banks-One-time-football-star-rape-charge-dismissed-years-prison-accuser-contacts-Facebook-say-happened.html#ixzz1vptrWlOu

In 2002, Brian Banks, a high school senior in Long Beach, California, met a young woman named Wanetta Gibson. Banks was attending summer school, and met Gibson on his way to use a public phone. The two had what Banks believed was a consensual sexual relationship, but nothing serious, according to Banks.

Brian Banks was being wooed by numerous colleges for his prowess as a football player. At 6’4” and 225 pounds, the linebacker was a highly sought after athlete. Then the floor fell out from under Brian Banks: Wanetta Gibson accused him of rape.

Court papers show a note Gibson wrote to a friend. The note read as follows: (Misspellings were in the original note.)

“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 a condom on and I was a virgin now Im not.”

Brian Banks had a choice. He could take his chances with a jury trial, a “he said, she said” nightmare or he could accept a plea deal. His lawyer advised Banks to take the plea, and Brian Banks pled no contest to one count of forcible rape. He was incarcerated for five years, and upon release, had to register as a sex offender.

On Thursday morning, Brian Banks appeared in a California court room, and stood, head down, as a Superior Court judge dismissed Banks’ conviction. Brian Banks was free. His eyes filled with tears and he trembled visibly as he and his family finally received the justice they deserved.

Wanetta Gibson lied. Brian Banks never raped her, and thanks to Facebook of all things, Brian Banks is now free after ten years of hell. Brian Banks logged into Facebook last year, and noticed a very strange friend request, from none other than Wanetta Gibson. Banks was unemployed and depressed. But he saw a glimmer, a light at the end of a very dark tunnel, and he asked Wanetta Gibson if she would be willing to meet with a private investigator. She agreed.

During the meeting, which was secretly recorded, Wanetta Gibson admitted Brian Banks did not rape her. She refused to speak with prosecutors, according to Banks and the private investigator, because she was afraid she would have to return the money she had received in a civil suit against the Long Beach school district. Gibson also said, again, according to Brian Banks and the investigator, that she was afraid of what her children would think of her.

Brian Banks cannot get back those ten years. He will live with the memory of prison, and being a registered sex offender, even temporarily, for the rest of life. And Wanetta Gibson? As a survivor of sexual assault, I honestly hope karma has something planned for Wanetta Gibson. False rape allegations make it more difficult for actual victims to receive justice. For every false rape allegation made, dozens, if not hundreds of actual rape victims remain silent, because we know that every false allegation adds one more barrier, one more doubt and gives our rapist another chance to attack.

I hope Wanetta Gibson has to return the money she won in her civil suit, and I hope that Brian Banks sues her. And I hope Wanetta Gibson goes to bed every single night, for the rest of her life, knowing she made it more difficult for women who are raped, truly raped, to recover and put their attacker behind bars.

Thanks to the Huffington Post for information in this article.

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