Just How Corrupt Are Pennsylvania's Police?

Even before the incidents in Las Vegas, Nevada and Milledgeville, Georgia, it was known that Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger employed state troopers and city police as his personal entourage. This isn't on the surface a particularly odd phenomena. Police frequently moonlight as bouncers and body guards in all fifty states. But post-Rapistbergergate, Pennsylvania police are beginning to look as crooked as neighboring New Jersey.

Naturally the public scrutiny truly began after criminal rape charges were filed against Roethlisberger for having sex with a college student in this bathroom (seriously, this is via WPXI in Pittsburgh). Although the charges were dropped, enough evidence got out to make everyone involved look very bad. And once Georgia Police released the interviews, things went from bad to worse.

For starters, Ben was fittingly wearing a shirt with an image of Lucifer on the front, as seen in this picture from the night in question (via The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette with the accuser digitally blurred). And from WPXI, these disturbing quotes:

• After taking a round of shots purchased by Roethlisberger, the accuser said one of Roethlisberger's body guards led her down a hallway.
• Accuser: "It was kind of like they [Roethlisberger and his entourage] had planned it. Because the entire night we were asking him 'Why are you here?' And he said, 'Oh, just trying to change it up.' And we were like OK, that's weird. You're in a college town and you're 28 years old. It's weird."
• Accuser: "He had me sit at this stool and like 30 seconds later Ben comes back there, his penis was already out of his pants. And I was like, 'No, this is not right, I don't agree with this.'"

In addition to the allegations of the accuser that Roethlisberger and his entourage planned the alleged incident, several girls accompanying her that night tell stories that further implicate the involvement of the bodyguards. According to the Post-Gazette, three girls in addition to the accuser said they saw one of the bodyguards lead the accuser to the bathroom after buying the girls drinks all night. And two say that the bodyguards would not allow them to follow their friend into the bathroom. It's pretty clear that the members of Ben's entourage knew exactly what was going on, forcefully preventing others from stopping the crime, and thus becoming accessories to rape.

******

Alright, everybody take a deep breath and rinse the taste of vomit out of your mouths. Sadly the story gets worse.

One of the bodyguards, Officer Anthony Barravecchio of Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, was supposedly within weeks of likely losing his job as a police officer in the wake of the case in Georgia. However in late May, city Solicitor Richard Start (do any of these people not have terrible names?) announced that it will apparently take "months" to make the decision.

The conspirator in me says that these "month" are actually just a way to keep Barravecchio's job (and connection the Steelers) in tact by simply waiting out public interest in the case. And of course a similar argument would be made in the other bodyguard's case if hadn't become such an egg in the face of Pennsylvania's finest.

Edward Joyner is a state police officer who illegally moonlighted as Ben's "travel agent, contractor, dry cleaning deliveryman, personal shopper, car detailer and valet." Pittsburgh Live reports that in the same time span, he also was able to rack up more overtime than any other policeman in the state - 602 hours to be exact. Do I even need to explain how unlikely it is that any of that is legitimate.

Additionally, Joyner's long-time excuse for his usually illegal second job was a rare authorization from a department head. Well, that department head - who is now retired and is a known whistleblower - claims her signature on said form was a forgery.

In an effort to save face, permission for Joyner to continuing working for Roethlisberger was rescinded, but the police union is fighting it. Union President Bruce Edwards gave a particularly damning quote: "The department had no problem with Ben Roethlisberger and Ed Joyner when everything was going fine . . . Now they say they didn't know about all that? They totally knew, and they used him for their own purposes."

The bottom line is that clearly the Keystone State Cops are absolutely enamored by the Pittsburgh Steelers (they're probably Freemasons too) . Even after the proverbial shit hit the fan (or semen as the case may be) it seems like the powers-that-be are just trying to smooth over the situation instead of taking a hard stance against officers who are doing things "The Shield" writers wish they'd thought of.

Maybe it's a good thing that Cincinnati (or more accurately, Northern Kentucky) just arrests the troublesome players. Because whatever you want to say about the Cincinnati Bengals, at least their starting quarterback isn't a serial rapist.