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
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 sexual 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.
Banks
with his mother, Leomia Myers. He served six years in prison for the rape he
did not commit
Banks, with his
attorneys Justin Brooks and Alissa Bjerkhoel, after the charges are dismissed.
It comes after the accuser contacted him to say the rape did not happen
Banks had been recruited by colleges and
offered scholarships before the accusation
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 raping 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 sexual contact had
been consensual.
Wanetta Gibson contacted Banks to say he had not raped her but would not admit it
as she feared she would have to pay back $1.5 million won against the school
Yet his then lawyer
encouraged the promising student to plead no contest to the kidnap and rape
charges, warning Banks he could get 41 years to life in prison if convicted.
Expecting he would serve just 18 months instead, he followed the
advice and pleaded no contest. He was in prison for six years.
While there, his case was taken on by Brooks, a lawyer who head
the California Innocence Project.
‘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.’
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