Onetime top Calif. football prospect exonerated after serving 5 years on rape charge

(CBS/AP) LONG BEACH, Calif. - A former high school football star whose dreams of a pro career were shattered by a rape conviction burst into tears Thursday as a judge threw out the charge that sent him to prison for more than five years.

Brian Banks, now 26, had pleaded no contest 10 years ago on the advice of his lawyer after a childhood friend falsely accused him of attacking her on their high school campus.

Brian Banks weeps as his kidnap-rape conviction is dismissed on May 24, 2012, in Long Beach, Calif.

/ AP Photo/Long Beach Press-Telegram, Brittany Murray

The district attorney offered Banks a deal -- plead guilty to rape and spend another 18 months in prison, or go to trial and face 41 years to life, CBS Los Angeles reports.

Banks said his defense attorney told him, "'When you go into that courtroom the jury is going to see a big black teenager and you're automatically going to be assumed guilty.' Those are her exact words."

In a strange turn of events, the woman, Wanetta Gibson, friended him on Facebook when he got out of prison.

In an initial meeting with him, she said she had lied; there had been no kidnap and no rape and she offered to help him clear his record, court records state.

But she refused to repeat the story to prosecutors because she feared she would have to return a $1.5 million payment from a civil suit brought by her mother against Long Beach schools.

During a second meeting that was secretly videotaped, she told 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,"' according to a defense investigator who was at the meeting.

It was uncertain Thursday whether Gibson will have to return the money.

Prosecutors also said they didn't immediately know if she might be prosecuted for making the false accusation when she was 15.

Gibson did not attend the hearing on Thursday.

Brian Banks, center, reacts with his mother, Leomia Myers and father, Jonathan Banks, outside court after his rape conviction was dismissed on May 24, 2012 in Long Beach, Calif.

/ AP Photo/Nick Ut

Banks, once a star middle linebacker at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, had attracted the interest of such college football powerhouses as the University of Southern California, Ohio State University and the University of Michigan, according to the website Rivals.com, which tracks the recruiting of high school football and basketball players.

Banks said he had verbally agreed to attend USC on a four-year scholarship when he was arrested.

He still hopes to play professional football and has been working out regularly. His attorney Justin Brooks appealed to NFL teams to give him a chance.

Banks said outside court Thursday that he had lost all hope of proving his innocence until Gibson contacted him.

"It's been a struggle. But I'm unbroken and I'm still here today," the tall, muscular Banks said, tears flowing down his face.

He recalled being shocked and speechless on the day Gibson reached out to him after he had been released from prison, having served five years and two months.

"I thought maybe it wasn't real," he said. "How could she be contacting me?"

He said he knew that if he became angry when he met with her it wouldn't help, so he struggled to keep calm.

"I stopped what I was doing and got down on my knees and prayed to God to help me play my cards right," he said.

In court, Deputy District Attorney Brentford Ferreira told Superior Court Judge Mark C. Kim that prosecutors agreed the case should be thrown out. Kim dismissed it immediately.

Banks had tried to win release while he was in prison, but Brooks, a law professor and head of the California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law in San Diego, said he could not have been exonerated without the woman coming forward and recanting her story.

Brooks said it was the first case he had ever taken in which the defendant had already served his time and had been free for a number of years.

Banks remained on probation, however, and was still wearing his electronic monitoring bracelet at Thursday's hearing. His lawyer said the first thing the two planned to do was report to probation officials and have it removed.

"The charges are dismissed now," Brooks said. "It's as if it didn't happen. ... It was the shortest, greatest proceeding I've ever been part of."

Banks had been arrested after Gibson said he met her in a school hallway and urged her to come into an elevator with him. The two had been friends since middle school and were in the habit of making out in a school stairwell, according to court papers.

There were contradictions in Gibson's story, as she told some people the rape happened in the elevator and others that it happened in the stairwell.

A kidnapping enhancement was added to the case because of the allegation Banks had taken her to the stairwell. That enhancement also was thrown out Thursday.

Outside court, Banks donned a sweat shirt that read "Innocent," as several friends and family members wept. His parents were jubilant, and Banks thanked them for standing by him.

"I know the trauma, the stress that I've been through, but I can't imagine what it's like to have your child torn from you," he said. "I don't know what I would have done without my parents."

[rockyruggiero]

1. This woman should give back all of the money for starters. It should be handed to Brian in full. Immediately.
2. This woman should be sent to prison for the same amount of time this man had to serve. The exact same amount. Maybe more!
3. Brian should get an additional several million dollars in restitution for that defense attorney being negligent and not fighting for this mans rights.
4. Here is a message for Brian - because I know you are wondering "why" God would allow you to go through this. Look at this from a larger, more eternal perspective. (admittedly, this is a positive viewpoint, so give me some grace...i just want you thinking big.) You will probably receive a good deal of money - and, I'm praying you will. You may or may not have played for the NFL - and, frankly, if you did, there is a good chance you may have been hurt. Most do get hurt. (I'm not saying you are not fabulous in football - I'm saying they call the NFL the "not for long" sport because it's so hard to get in and then even harder to stay in because it's so easy to become inured. In some way - I pray that this experience rewards you financially - and, it keeps your body fully in store (something most NFL guys never fully think through or experience) on top of your health and money, you can use this story - this fame - to help serve the world in an even more rewarding way than you ever imagined. I pray this for you. My heart truly breaks and is wrenched - for you and for all who are serving a term for something they have not done. I'm just a bald, chubby white guy from Chicago - but, I want you to know I love you and I truly share your pain! Your brother in Christ, ROCKY RUGGIERO

[wallygeez]

This is a classic example why we should not automatically accept as truth when anyone yells RAPE or accuses someone of sexual assault. This woman ruined this poor guy's life - got $1.5 Million for it in reward, and she's "worried she'll have to give it back"?? Of COURSE she'll have to give it back and the LEAST that should happen is that SHE go to jail for being a lying POS.

[Ben_Lied2]

Disgusting, the ethically challenged woman need to spend an equal amount of time the joint and pay back the $$.

Of course she won't - after all she's a female.

The hypocrisy of the women's movement rains supreme.

[Beyond-The-Spectrum]

Men are the new oppressed gender. All women have to do is leverage the power of their sexuality and yell "Rape!" and nightmare of trying to prove his innocence begins!

[wallygeez]

Exactly! Where is the women's movement now? We went well past equality and now given superiority...

[fedup12]

She was fifteen, and is therefor ineligible for the felony treatment and punishment you're talking about. Who needs to go to jail for a long, long time are the adults- period!
----------------------------------------------

There are many many juveniles that face adult prosecution for cases as serious as murder. So I really believe that she could also.

I hope legal that you check out of your holiday in express soon.

[fedup12]

Legalbutnotjust is not a lawyer.... He just likes to type a LOT, and tell you how much your opinion does not count.

[LeighS1109]

****** Bag.

[NebFan]

It's good to know justice does prevail. My son has the stigma of being a sex offender because of a younger girls lies. There was conversation between them on Myspace stating that she lied because she was mad at him. However, there was a no contact order and it could not be used in court. Now he has to constantly worry about his address being up to date, has a hard time finding a place to live, and several other hurdles because of someone's lies! Wish this young man the best!

[audemus]

Give the young man the shot that lies and injustice took from him. I know the Packers could use some defensive help....are you listening Ted Thompson ?

[AnnieDanny]

I expect that this girl/woman is going to be facing all kinds of trouble very soon.

And I have no respect for the defense attorney who talked a kid into saying he was guilty when he wasn't. Seems to me that her theory on the case was very racist, and I don't think it would have been such a cut-and-dried court case as she claimed. People know how to think for themselves; more than they're given credit for. And what kind of evidence would there have been to prove he did it? Her word against his? I don't think that's enough, juries want more proof than that. I think the defense attorney could have tried harder than this, IMO. And maybe that girl wouldn't have gotten the big settlement from the school.