Wanetta Gibson - A high school football prospect, who was falsely accused of rape and jailed for more than 5 years, has been exonerated of the charges after the victim recounted her testimony.
Brian Banks was 16-years-old when the incident that would forever change his life happened in the summer of 2002 at the Long Beach Polytechnic High School in Southern California.
According to reports, Banks was taking summer classes when he ran into a friend and classmate Wanetta Gibson, who was 15 at the time.
"I stepped outside to make the phone call and I ran into a classmate of mine," Banks said. "We met, hugged, started talking and agreed to go to an area on our campus that was known as a make-out-area."
"We went to this area and made out. We never had sex," he said.
However, by evening of that day, Banks had been arrested, placed in custody and accused of raping Wanetta Gibson on school campus.
"I was being arrested and accused of kidnapping and rape," Banks says. "I was taken into custody that same say and the judge put a bail on me that was too high for me to post bond. It was over $ 1 million."
Although he pleaded his innocence, Banks spent a year in juvenile before his case was heard. He was tried as an adult and faced 41 years to life if found guilty.
"I had no chance in trial because I was a big, black teenager and the jury would be an all-white jury and would automatically assume me as guilty because of that, " Banks said.
Brian Banks was sentenced to six years in prison - effectively throwing all dreams he had of making it to the pros to the wind. There was no DNA evidence to prove that he raped Wanetta Gibson. However, she received $1.5 million from the Long Beach School system for unsafe environment.
"Just the trauma and the stress that I had already dealt with that first year, It was unimaginable how I was going to do another four years," Banks explains.
In 2007, at 22 years old, he was released from prison. Banks tried to pick up his football career where he left off but faced challenges; many years away from the game had taken its toll. He also struggled with life as a registered sex offender.
He said he moved back with his parents, searched for work while doing odd jobs and trying out for different teams - including the 49ers, Vikings, Eagles, Chief and Chargers. However, nobody signed him.
Brian Banks said one day while checking his Facebook account in 2011, he stumbled on a friends request from Wanetta Gibson, who he hadn't spoken to since the incident happened.
He asked why she wanted them to be friends online and she said "I was hoping we could be bygones be bygones."
"I was immature back in the day, but I'm much more nature now. Let's hang out. I'd love to see you. I've seen your picture on Facebook. You look real good. I would love to hook up," Banks said Gibson wrote.
Although meeting her violated his parole, Banks took the risk sensing that Wanetta would be willing to tell the truth about what really happened.
Banks invited Wanetta to an investigator's office and they spoke at length about how her statement had destroyed his life while the investigator watched from a next room.
Banks said the next day he invited Wanetta to the same office and this time they had a secret camera. The investigators asked her what really happened.
Banks said she laughed and said, "Of course not. If he raped me, I wouldn't be here right now. We were just young and having a good time, being curious, then all these other people got involved and blew it out of proportion."
Banks took the tape to the California Innocence Project, who pursed the case and filled an appeal. Banks was eventually cleared off the charges.
A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ordered Wanetta Gibson to pay $1.5 million plus another $1.1 million in fees.
Now 29, Brian Banks works with the NFL in the football operations department in the league's Park Avenue headquarters in New York.
"Very few people could even endure what happened to Brian, much less emerge with such resilience and determination," says Troy Vincent, NFL executive vice president of football operations.
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