Milledgeville, Ga., police Chief Woodrow W. Blue Jr. on Friday said his department has ended its investigation of Sgt. Jerry Blash's actions the night Ben Roethlisberger was accused of sexual assault because Sgt. Blash has resigned.

The resignation, submitted to Chief Blue on Wednesday, saved the department the potential embarrassment of further publicity regarding the first law enforcement officer to speak to the Steelers' quarterback and his accuser.

Witnesses interviewed by Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents said Sgt. Blash, who had posed in a picture with Mr. Roethlisberger earlier in the evening, was confrontational and raised his voice when speaking with the woman moments after she left the nightclub where she said the incident occurred. Two women, who were friends of the accuser, said Sgt. Blash warned them that Mr. Roethlisberger had a lot of money and could hire good lawyers and that pursuing the matter would be a waste of time.

Tony Barravecchio, an off-duty Coraopolis officer who was a member of Mr. Roethlisberger's party that night, said that when Sgt. Blash entered the nightclub to ask about the incident, Sgt. Blash said, "We have a problem. This drunken bitch, drunk off her ass, is accusing Ben of rape. This pisses me off. Women can do this. It's [bull], but we've got to do this, we've got to do a report. This is BS. She's making [stuff] up."

Sgt. Blash, in interviews with GBI agents, said he had become frustrated when dealing with the woman because she was highly intoxicated and her statements were inconsistent and did not make sense.

Sgt. Blash also said that while he did speak with Officer Barravecchio and others in Mr. Roethlisberger's group about the woman's accusation and the fact that she was drunk, any names he might have called her were part of remarks he made to other Milledgeville police officers and that the other witnesses must have overheard them.

In his statement, Sgt. Blash said he told Mr. Roethlisberger, "Whether you think it's [BS] or not, whether I think it's [BS] or not, I still got to do a report."

Chief Blue said early this week that Sgt. Blash's conduct was the subject of a department review and would not discuss the personnel matter further. But he emphasized, and Friday repeated his belief, that Sgt. Blash's remarks and attitude had no impact on the subsequent investigation into the incident and that the case against Mr. Roethlisberger still would have been dropped based on the lack of evidence.

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