A high school football star who was once one of the most highly-sought players in the country has had a rape charge against him dismissed after his accuser admitted it had never happened.
Brian Banks, 26, who spent six years behind bars in California, collapsed in sobs during a court hearing as a prosecutor quickly conceded the decade-old case and moved for a dismissal.
'There are no words in any language, no gesture in any culture that can explain or describe what I have been through,' said Banks. 'I hope my story brings light to a major flaw in the judicial system.'
It came after the woman who accused him, Wanetta Gibson, added him as a friend on Facebook when he left prison 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 $1.5 million 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 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 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 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.
