"Former high school football standout exonerated in rape case."

The L.A. Times reports:

[Advised by his lawyer to] take a plea deal rather than having the "he said-she said" case go to trial... [Brian] Banks pleaded no contest to one count of forcible rape, was incarcerated for about six years and had to register as a sex offender.

In a movie-worthy twist, his former accuser got in touch with him via Facebook after he left prison. The two eventually met in person.

According to court papers, she admitted to him she lied but later refused to tell prosecutors the same thing lest she have to give back the $1.5 million she and her family won in a civil suit against Long Beach schools.`

ADDED: "I will go through with helping you but it’s like at the same time all that money they gave us, I mean gave me, I don’t want to have to pay it back."