Facing Sexual Battery Charges, Former NFL Linebacker Nate Webster's Attorneys Argue Victim Was 16 Instead of 15-Years-Old

“Something immoral takes place between Nate and” the girl, Gregory Samms, one of Webster’s attorneys told jurors. “When it happens, she’s 16 … and it is consensual.”

In Ohio, except in rare specific instances, the age of consent is 16. Webster is accused of having sex with the girl when she was 15 – and he tells police that on a recording. But his attorneys said Tuesday that Webster’s recorded recollection was wrong.

Don’t let that make it sound like some kind of beautiful relationship. Webster isn’t about win this in the court of public opinion no matter how old the girl was.

Webster was chided by the girl’s father, Tieger said, for not paying her for babysitting. When he did, he started the sexual relationship, the prosecutor added, and threatened to kill her and her family if she told. “As time went by this became a full-fledged secretive relationship,” Tieger said.

Eventually, they often had sex in Webster’s car, with heavily tinted windows, in Webster’s Symmes Township home or in a nearby park.

Wonderful. Nate Webster played 9 seasons in the NFL with the Buccaneers, Broncos and Bengals. If convicted, he could serve more than 30 years in prison.

[Cincinnati.com, Getty]