After Wanetta Gibson falsely accused her classmate, Brian Banks, of attacking her at their school, she and her mother, Wanda Rhodes, sued the Long Beach Unified School District for allowing the alleged crime to happen on campus.Banks took a plea deal that put him behind bars for five years, the school district settled the lawsuit for $1.5 million and the women went on a wild spending spree with their share of the settlement — without showing an ounce of remorse.
“The mom was buying cars, big screen TVs and all sorts of things,” a former neighbor said of Rhodes. “One time Wanetta came up here with a wad of cash — she had $10,000 in her hand.”
“She showed up with a brand new Altima with some great rims,” said the neighbor, who asked not to be identified. “And she bought her mom a Suburban and a Dodge.”
Rhodes, now 52, was greedy and “the type of person where money was everything,” said another neighbor, named Terrell, who would not give his last name. “The mom was really controlling.”
Gibson has never married but has two children by different men, the neighbors said. Although now 26, she still lives with her mother, who has a stranglehold over her life.
Today, after frittering away their money, the women move from one place to another, always a step ahead of debt collectors slapping them with liens, public records show. Rhodes has a lengthy rap sheet, including[..]ault with a deadly weapon, burglary, drug offenses and stalking.
Gibson and Rhodes continue to live in the shadows, untraceable and vilified for robbing a promising athlete of a college education and an NFL career.
“They don’t even have those cars, the bill collectors came and repossessed them,” the neighbor said. “Then they started selling everything. I remember Wanetta came up here and asked me if I wanted her kids’ new PlayStation for 50 bucks.”