Florida State sends open letter detailing handling of Jameis Winston case
Florida State issued an open letter Friday defending its handling of the sexual assault accusations against Jameis Winston.
While Winston was ultimately not charged by Florida prosecutors in December 2013 because of a lack of evidence surrounding the December 2012 incident, the university is currently in the midst of a Title IX investigation into the case. Title IX investigations are required by universities in all cases of sexual assault.
The university said the first time people not in the campus police department or the school's Victim Advocate Program knew of the accusations was in January 2013 when Winston was called by a member of the Tallahassee Police Department on his phone about the incident.
The first time anyone at FSU outside the campus police and Victim Advocate Program learned about the alleged sexual assault was in January 2013, when a Tallahassee PD detective called the athlete on his cellphone, The athlete immediately notified the Athletics Department, where officials referred him and his family to a Tallahassee attorney.
The phone call received scrutiny from Florida state attorney Willie Meggs, who said that Winston should have been approached personally by the detective. Meggs was critical of the TPD's investigation into the case. The case was handed over to state officials after an 11-month delay in the case.
After the phone call, the school said the TPD said it was no longer pursuing the case. (You can view the entire letter here at Warchant.com.)
· The Athletics Department also considered accounts by the athlete and two other FSU student athletes who were present at the encounter. All three independently described it as consensual. Based on that and the TPD's decision, the Athletics Department did not file a report with the University's Title IX administrator or the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities.
· Although victim advocates continued to provide services and to have confidential interactions with the complainant for months, they were duty-bound not to share any of the information with FSU Title IX officials. Those officials knew nothing about the matter until November 2013, when TPD notified the University it had received media inquiries and was referring the suspended case to the State Attorney's Office for review.
Florida State also said it started pursuing a Title IX investigation in December 2013 after taking steps to keep the accuser's identity confidential and reviewed the documents released by the Florida state attorney's office. However, it said the accuser's attorneys asked the school to cease contact with the accuser.
Baine Kerr, an attorney for the accuser, issued a response to the letter. Via the AP:
"The obvious news in its statement is that senior athletic department officials met with Winston and his lawyer one month after the rape occurred, then decided to hide it from the Title IX office," Kerr said. "The statement's timeline is full of errors, but it shows that we can add both FERPA and the victim-advocate privilege to the list of laws Florida State is willing to break to protect this football program. What else can the school do wrong in this mess?
"The whole country is moving toward improving the response to campus rape reports while Florida State backpedals the other way."
It confirmed that it interviewed Winston in January 2014 and he declined to make a statement at the time and said that in February 2014, the accuser's attorneys asked to put the documents from the case into a litigation hold and indicated there would be an impending civil lawsuit after the university said there was insufficient evidence at the time to pursue a finding.
· On February 10, 2014, with neither party offering additional information to the investigative public record, FSU found that there was insufficient evidence to support a finding in the Title IX investigation at this time. Importantly, the ruling expressly left the door open for reconsideration if further information was brought forth.
In May 2014, Winston's teammates Chris Casher and Ronald Darby had Title IX hearings for their role in the matter. They were the two other players mentioned above who gave the university statements that the encounter was consensual. The school said it interviewed the woman in August 2014 after repeated attempts to do so and acknowledged the April 2014 Department of Education investigation.
After the interview, the accuser's attorney said he expected Title IX charges against Winston. The school said in the letter that it's approaching the final resolution of the complaint but gave no timetable.
· As disclosed by the complainant's attorney and widely reported in the media, on Aug. 6, 2014--after multiple requests by FSU over the previous 20 months--the attorney agreed to make the complainant available for an interview. Based on her statement, the University reopened a confidential Title IX investigation and, once again, sought a statement from the
athlete.
The letter also addresses the letter David Cornwell, an attorney for Winston, sent in September saying Winston would cooperate in the case. The school also says that it has "begun enhancing our training and examining our policies while putting into place concrete changes. These changes are aimed at reducing sexual assault and sexual violence, as well as strengthening our response to sexual assault complaints under Title IX."
For more Florida State news, visit Warchant.com.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
