Former Long Beach football player exonerated of rape will sue state

LONG BEACH ? A former high school football star whose rape conviction was thrown out last week plans to file a compensation claim with the state, but will not sue the woman who recanted the rape and kidnapping charge she made a decade ago.

An attorney for Brian Banks, 26, said in news reports that his client will seek $100 from the state for every day he was wrongfully incarcerated.

"Brian Banks spent several years of his young life in prison when he should have been in college getting a degree and playing football," Justin Brooks, an attorney representing Banks and director of the California Innocence Project, said Saturday. "No amount of money can get that time back, but he certainly should be compensated."

Banks walked free on Thursday in a dramatic, 30-second hearing in Long Beach Superior Court during which Judge Mark Kim vacated his conviction. Banks spent five years and two months in prison after pleading no contest to forcible rape in 2003.

His accuser, Wanetta Gibson, was a high school sophomore when she accused Banks, then 17, of raping her in 2002 on the campus of Poly High School.

She received a $1.5 million payment from a civil suit brought by her mother against the Long Beach Unified School District for failing to provide a safe environment.

School district officials wouldn't comment on whether they would seek repayment of the settlement.

Prosecutors have said they have no plans to charge

Gibson, now 24, with making false accusations, saying it would be a tough case to prove. She could not be reached for comment.

Brooks said that Banks is entitled to $100 a day for every day he was falsely imprisoned under State Law 4900.

If successful, the lawsuit against the state of California would net Banks about $188,500.

Banks, a football standout at Poly, had been heavily recruited by colleges, and had a verbal offer for a scholarship at USC.

He told

Brian Banks, 26, plans to sue the state after being exonerated of rape charges on Thursday. Banks hopes to make up for lost time and possibly play professional football. (Brittany Murray / Staff Photographer)

police he had a consensual sexual encounter with Gibson, a classmate - but always maintained that he did not rape her. He pleaded no contest to forcible rape charges to avoid a possible 41-year-to-life sentence in prison if convicted on all the charges, he said.

After accepting a plea deal, he served more than five years in prison, and was required to register for life as a sex offender.

Gibson recanted her story a little more than a year ago after "friending" Banks on Facebook and asked to meet with him.

"I got on my knees and prayed," Banks said last week after his court hearing. "I asked God to help me play my cards right."

Gibson refused to tell prosecutors the truth, for fear of having to repay the settlement. But attorneys with the California Innocence Project were eventually able to record her recanting the accusation.

On Thursday, prosecutors conceded the matter, and the judge immediately vacated Banks' conviction. His record is now wiped clean.

Banks is training six days a week at a gym in Long Beach, and hopes to revive his chance for a football career.

Banks said he has no animosity toward Gibson, only that he wants to move forward with his life.

"I'm unbroken," he said Thursday. "I'm still here."

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