Nate Webster's freedom hinges on question: Who's lying?

Someone in the criminal case of former Bengal Nathaniel “Nate” Webster is a major liar.

Webster’s attorneys argued to jurors Tuesday the liar is his accuser, who said she began having sex with Webster in the fall of 2009 when she was 15 and Webster was 31.

“This is a fantasy story of someone who is infatuated with an older man and makes this up. This cannot be true,” Gregory Samms, one of Webster’s attorneys, said of the accuser.

But Hamilton County prosecutors said the liar is Webster who, they told jurors, lied to everyone including police about having sex with the girl. Webster only changed his story to admit he had sex with her after police played him secretly recorded conversations he had with the girl when he admitted he had sex with her in the fall of 2009 when she was 15.

“He confessed to these dates,” Assistant Prosecutor Seth Tieger told jurors, who watched and heard Webster’s taped statements to police.
After his arrest, though, Webster said he was wrong on the dates and admitted he had sex with the girl after she turned 16, the age of consent in Ohio.

A conviction could send Webster to prison for more than 30 years. He rejected a pretrial plea bargain that would have sent him to prison for four years.

The trial, which started last week, accuses Webster of sexual touching, sexual battery and five counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.


(cincinnati.com)