MILLEDGEVILLE -- Perception and reality have often clashed when it comes to Milledgeville, home of the state's largest mental health hospital and to literary icon Flannery O'Connor, the grande dame of Southern Gothic.
Now, as the setting of a scandal involving a Super Bowl-winning quarterback from Pittsburgh and a coed from metro Atlanta, Milledgeville finds itself assuming a familiar defensive posture.
"We've worked very hard to create an image that we're not some redneck backwater with a big party school," said Richard Bentley, 47, mayor of this Middle Georgia town that's home to roughly 20,000 residents.
Unfortunately for Bentley, the media doesn't always cooperate. In truth Milledgeville, formerly the state capital, has plenty going for it, most notably a vibrant downtown filled with stately Antebellum architecture and bordered by a thriving liberal arts college and a military academy. But with the sexual assault accusation leveled against Ben Roethlisberger by a Georgia College and State University sophomore still unresolved, Milledgeville has emerged as a supporting character in what's become a bigger story nationally than locally.
"The media's making a bigger deal out of it than anyone is here," said local barber Bobby Mercer, who's been cutting hair in Milledgeville since the 1950s.
While the town is anything but blase about the Roethlisberger case, they've got other concerns. The city's unemployment rate, traditionally lower than the state average, is now a staggering 14.2 percent. Two of its bigger private employers, Rheem, a heating and cooling manufacturer, and the Shaw carpet mill unexpectedly shuttered plants within the past year, costing some 2,000 jobs.
"We've been hit harder than anyone by the bad housing market," Bentley said. And things are likely to get worse with the imminent closing of the Central State Hospital, founded in 1842.
Suddenly the college has become one of the few institutions that Milledgeville can count on. And locals are rising to its defense, disputing those who've characterized GCSU as a "party school." In fact its students have the state's third-highest SAT average behind Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia.
"My biggest concern is those 2,000 people out of work," Bentley said. "These are our friends and neighbors. We don't need bad publicity now."
Chris McKearney, editor of the Baldwin Bulletin, a local weekly, said authorities are being conspicuously cautious.
"They don't want to be seen as dropping the ball," he said.
Milledgeville police spokeswoman Diane Kelly said Tuesday there was "nothing new" to report on the investigation. "If there is, they haven't told me," Kelly said.
TMZ.com reported Tuesday that the 20-year-old has left the school to be with her parents. The woman's attorneys, Lee Parks and David Walbert, released a statement asking for discretion.
"We join the school in urging the media to respect the family's need for privacy during this extremely difficult period in their lives. Their daughter has done the right thing and reported this matter to the police. She has been, and will be, available to the authorities to assist them in the criminal investigation. While the matter is under investigation, we ask you to respect her privacy, keep her name out of the press and allow the family space and time to heal."
Roethlisberger, who has a home in Reynolds Plantation about 45 minutes from Milledgeville, has also left town, and though he's due for another interview with police, a date and location haven't been finalized, Kelly said. Most speculate the inquiry will happen at the Atlanta offices of his attorneys, Ed Garland and Don Samuel.
The college has also remained tight-lipped. Students received an e-mail Monday from university officials asking them not to discuss the Roethlisberger case with the media.
Those closest to the quarterback and his accuser have said little. Most of the sophomore's sorority sisters have taken down their Facebook pages in an attempt to keep members of the media from contacting them, and Roethlisberger's inner circle has remained mum.
Witnesses say the alleged victim was partying with friends when she met the face of the Steelers franchise last Thursday night.
"Thursday is still the biggest party night," said McKearney, a Milledgeville native. That's attributed to the university's roots as a commuter college.
Roethlisberger, who had barhopped in Milledgeville before, likely was aware of Thursday's reputation. He could have gone to Athens, home of the University of Georgia, which is roughly the same distance from the quarterback's Lake Oconee home.
Instead he wound up in the makeshift VIP area of the Capital City Club where his accuser said the attack occurred.
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