Another athlete avoids sexual assault charges, this time in Florida. No charges will be filed against anyone in the sexual assault case that had threatened to shake up the BCS.
The Tallahassee Police Department has been under heavy criticism for its handling of the case. The TPD is known for its incompetence, corruption, and deep ties to the FSU football program.
The TPD released the following claims:
• The accused’s attorney was immediately notified upon the victim identifying Jameis Winston as the perpetrator (giving the accused and witness(es) a chance to settle on a story, that is if they hadn't already)
• The victim had declined to press charges and the case was set on inactive status
Claims made by the victim’s attorney are:
• The TPD told her that they would not notify the accused’s attorney until possible witnesses had been interviewed
• The claim that the victim had ever declined to press charges was a complete fabrication
• The TPD warned her about pressing the case, as Tallahassee was a big football town and the victim would be raked over the coals
The victim claimed to have a very limited memory of the sequence of events that day. From what I recall the victim’s story went something like this:
• Out drinking
• Took cab to someone’s apartment
• Raped by someone who she could not identify while his friends watched
• Dumped at an intersection
• Went straight to the police
Winston declined to be interviewed. His friends claim the encounter was consensual. If we are to believe Winston, this intoxicated young woman consented to having sex with a complete stranger, changed her mind immediately and formed a plan to lie about the consent, all the while feigning memory loss.
The attorney in charge of making the decision on whether to file charges was an FSU alum who had a reputation for going after athletes. In fact he had filed sexual assault charges against another athlete not too long ago, on much much much weaker evidence.
So what was different here? A national championship game and Heisman trophy on the line for one. This attorney made several interesting and possibly cryptic statements about the case.
• A few days ago he said he was waiting for the answers to a few more questions, and if he didn’t get them that would be answer enough for him.
• He said at the press conference that the whole mess could have been avoided if unspecified actions had been taken at the beginning
• When asked whether he thought Winston was guilty his reply essentially was ‘the evidence is out there decide for yourself’
While I didn’t watch the press conference myself, I noted that several commentators were surprised by the attorney’s demeanor. For such a grave situation he seemed to be quite jovial.
These statements, the demeanor of the attorney, and the odd decision not to file charges based on his past history provoked some speculation on my part what actions may have been taken behind the scenes. Suppose an “understanding” was arranged that no charges would be filed, while completely coincidentally a large sum of money would appear in the victim’s bank account, the source of which would definitely not be one or more deep pocketed FSU boosters.
In this scenario, the attorney might conclude that everyone was happy.
• The victim is compensated for her ordeal
• The NCAA is off his back
• He doesn’t have to prosecute a long and messy case
• He doesn’t have to retire the most hated man in Tallahassee (did I mention he is retiring?)
Meanwhile, Winston will forever have the “rapist” cloud shadowing his every move no matter what happened here (I imagine it may have some impact endorsement-wise). If it’s the case that a payoff was made he’s also deeply indebted to one or more FSU alums.
Whatever the case may be here, I get the feeling that it’s not what justice looks like. My gut feeling is the TPD went into instant cover-up mode when they thought their star football recruit might be in trouble. Maybe Anonymous has the tools to shine some light on what exactly happened with the TPD (can you believe the chief of police did not even know about this incident?) and the subsequent investigation. Does Anonymous have a hotline number available for this kind of thing?
