A friend of the girl who alleges Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger sexually assaulted her told the club manager that friends of the NFL star blocked the entrance to the restroom during the alleged incident.
That is according to a recent report by ESPN.
Throughout the night Rocky Duncan, the manager of Capital City bar in Milledgeville, Ga., observed Roethlisberger chatting with a woman, but admitted he never saw the accuser or knew what she looked like, according to ESPN.
Sometime after that, a woman informed Duncan that she thought her friend might be in the restroom with Roethlisberger, but a member of the athlete’s party would not allow her to get back into the area, the ESPN report states. She also told Duncan she thought her friend might be drunk.
Because the athlete’s friends were highly protective of him, Duncan said he did not see anything wrong with them standing outside a locked door and stopping others from getting in.
Investigators have made efforts to retrieve club video footage from that night, but have been unsuccessful; an attorney has told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
As a result, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation cannot retrieve the footage for potential evidence, the Tribune-Review said.
GBI spokesman John Bankhead said the agency is not commenting on the investigation.
The Capital City nightclub’s video system “overwrote itself” and recorded over footage from that night, attorney Carl Cansino told the Tribune-Review.
ESPN is reporting there was no camera inside the Capital City club that pointed toward the bathroom -- where a 20-year-old college student says Roethlisberger sexually assaulted her March 5.
Many of the Milledgeville club's security cameras are focused on the main dance floor area, ESPN said.
Roethlisberger, who has maintained his innocence through attorneys, was questioned by police the night of the alleged incident, but his attorneys have refused a second interview with the GBI.
Atlanta attorney Lee Parks, who is representing the woman Roethlisberger is accused of attacking, said media reports that she was not cooperating with the investigation were false.
She is "cooperating fully," Parks told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Parks said the woman has agreed to future interviews with Milledgeville police and the GBI.
The investigation is entering its third week.
On Tuesday, the GBI withdrew its request for a DNA sample from the NFL star.
--Staff writer Rhonda Cook contributed to this article.
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