A former NFL cheerleader infamously convicted of trying to seduce a 12-year-old boy has spoken out for the first time about the scandal and claims SHE was the victim.
Elizabeth Leigh Garner, 53, was sentenced to 18 months of probation after she allegedly attempted to perform oral sex on a 12-year-old boy in 2013, according to public records.
Garner was charged with charges of sexual assault and soliciting a minor for sex, but her charges were reduced to a single felony count of child endangerment after she pleaded no contest.
The disgraced entertainer, then 42, was visiting a friend’s house when she followed the host’s 12-year-old son into the bathroom and tried to seduce him, police said at the time.
Over the next decade, Garner described her struggle to clear her name after this incident, which she said “devastated” her personally and professionally.
In Garner’s own words, the narrative of that night was “coached” by the 12-year-old. She claimed that what happened was that she was raped that night and insisted that she did not touch the child.
Speaking publicly for the first time, he said: “I’ve lost relationships and friendships; some friends just didn’t want to be associated with me.”
‘But my family and my closest friends have always supported me. They know I couldn’t kill a fly.
Elizabeth Leigh Garner, 53, spoke to DailyMail.com for the first time since 2013 to tell what happened the night she was accused of trying to perform ‘oral sex’ on a 12-year-old boy.
Garner cheering on the Tennessee Titans: She was accused and ridiculed nationwide for trying to seduce a 12-year-old boy, but she told our outlet that the boy’s mother had beaten her and an acquaintance had raped her.
Garner is now a hairstylist and salon manager in Palm Springs, Florida. She recounted her experience to DailyMail.com and described the allegations that turned her life upside down.
“We were drinking, something I did back then,” he said.
“I’m an alcoholic, but I’m in recovery and I’ve been sober for years.”
Garner said she was beaten by a woman who was allegedly jealous of her relationship with a man; that same woman allegedly told police it was because the maligned entertainer tried to seduce her son.
‘He ripped my hair out by the roots, left bruises on my face and legs and even burned me with a cigarette.
‘She basically beat me to the point of unconsciousness. And then (another person) took me to the other room and raped me.’
Garner said he woke up in the back of the ambulance on the way to the emergency room.
“I ended up in the hospital that night,” he explained, “but the police believed their version of events instead of mine.”
Garner was charged in 2013 with sexual assault and solicitation of a minor for child rape, but her charges were reduced to a single felony count of child endangerment after she pleaded no contest.
Garner said the altercation with the boy’s mother stemmed from her alleged jealousy of the cheerleader’s relationship with a man.
Garner said the girl’s mother burned her with a cigarette, left bruises all over her body and beat her unconscious before being raped by a man in a different room.
According to Garner, police believed his “attacker,” who said Garner “lured” his 12-year-old son into the bathroom and propositioned him for sex.
“I don’t remember seeing him and I didn’t take him to the bathroom at all,” Garner insisted.
‘I’m five and two. He was at least five foot six and weighed two hundred pounds. He was one month away from turning 13 years old. It was absurd.”
Garner initially told sex crimes detectives that the alleged assault was a misunderstanding and that “she was drunk and mistook the boy for a man” who was also in the home, according to reports at the time.
But Garner told DailyMail.com that he was the victim of an alleged violent beating and that the reason the victim’s mother gave police to justify the assault was “absolutely ridiculous.”
‘She did that because she hated me, which I never knew.
‘She hated me and really just wanted to destroy my life.
“She accused me of something I would never do and the police took her at her word without investigating further,” Garner said.
Garner said police didn’t believe him about the boy’s mother, even though her alleged brutal beating sent the cheerleader to the hospital.
The 53-year-old cheered for the Tennessee Titans for three seasons, until 2008.
‘They believed him and, from that moment on, I was not the victim, but the criminal.
“It’s bad enough to be beaten and raped, but to be falsely accused of sexually abusing a child, adding it all together is unspeakable.”
He claimed a witness, who was a relative of the child victim, made a 62-page affidavit supporting Garner’s case and claiming the boy was “coached.”
The affidavit allegedly states that the boy called the witness to the house and said Garner was being attacked.
The witness allegedly saw a man “walk out of the room, pulling up his pants, zipping up, and I was lying in the room with my pants down, unconscious,” she said.
In the statement, Garner provided photographs of her face, knees and arms bruised from the assault.
“No one knows I was raped that night,” Garner said. ‘Thousands of articles have been written about me on the Internet, however, none of them claim that I was beaten and raped.
‘I deserve my own healing. I want to cure myself of this. I feel like I can’t bring closure to the situation unless the truth comes out.’
He claimed that a witness, who was a relative of the child victim, made a 62-page affidavit supporting Garner’s narrative and claimed that the child was “coached.”
Garner described a monumental reaction after her allegations became public.
“They arrested me in the middle of a class I was taking at cosmetology school, in front of everyone,” she said.
‘When I got home, I turned on the TV and there it was, all over the news. “I felt like everyone thought I was guilty.”
She was initially charged with soliciting a minor for sex, but the charge was later reduced to child endangerment, which she pleaded no contest to to avoid an 18-year prison sentence.
Despite the support of her family, who she says “never doubted” her, Garner has struggled to move forward.
“Every time I talk about it, I feel like I can finally breathe a little easier,” she shared. “All I want is for the truth to be known so I can clear my name.”
For Garner, the allegations have affected her since the incident.
“People would recognize me at jobs and I would lose them when my past came to light,” he shared.
“I would do everything I could to get my life back together, then someone would Google me and I would be back to square one.”