Detective in Jameis Winston case requested work with Florida State booster group

Updated

The police officer scrutinized for his handling of the sexual assault investigation involving Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston twice requested permission to obtain secondary employment with the Seminole Boosters, according to records acquired by Yahoo Sports.

The secondary employment requests were filed by Detective Scott Angulo of the Tallahassee Police Department on Sept. 15, 2011, and Jan. 19, 2012.

Winston has been named in a sexual assault complaint that is alleged to have occurred in December 2012. The family of the alleged victim has questioned why Angulo didn't collect DNA and blood work from Winston when Winston's attorney knew of the sexual assault report as early as February.

The State Attorney's office is investigating the incident and has yet to announce whether Winston will be charged. Winston's attorney has said his client did nothing wrong and suggested any sex that might have occurred between Winston and the alleged victim was consensual.

When contacted for context on the work Angulo did for the Seminole Boosters – a fundraising arm for Florida State athletics – an employee of the organization indicated the organization regularly hires officers to work athletic events and to provide security for skyboxes in Doak Campbell stadium. The Tallahassee Police Department did not return a call requesting additional information about Angulo's work with the Seminole Boosters.

[Report: Decision on whether to charge Jameis Winston could take weeks]

Willie Meggs, the State Attorney now investigating the matter, expressed concern that it took nearly a year for the police report naming Winston to reach his office, and has indicated the delay had the potential to jeopardize aspects of the investigation. The victim's attorney released a statement asking for an explanation for the police department's delay in turning the information over to Meggs.

An examination of Angulo's social media accounts and public records reveal multiple connections between members of the Tallahassee Police Department and Florida State University.

According to those records, Angulo is a graduate of FSU. Angulo's mother is also a member of an FSU athletics support group on Facebook, and was previously a member of a "Jameis Winston Fans" page until late last week. She is no longer a member of the Winston group.

The alleged victim's attorney, Patricia Carroll, said the ties potentially provided some context for statements Angulo made when allegedly declining to take DNA samples from Winston.

"If that information is true and correct, it helps me understand Officer Angulo's statement to me back in January," Carroll said. Carroll previously alleged that Angulo "refused to collect Winston's DNA or interview Winston's roommate who witnessed the attack" because he said doing so would "alert Winston and the matter would go public."

Carroll further alleged Angulo told her "Tallahassee was a big football town and the victim needs to think long and hard before proceeding against [Winston] because she will be raked over the coals and her life will be made miserable."

According to public records, Angulo is a Tallahassee native who obtained his Bachelor of Science in criminology from FSU in August of 1998. He also joined an Internet-based group supporting Florida State University football. He was a member of that group as recently as the afternoon of Oct. 20. Officer Angulo's social media profile has since been removed.

Angulo isn't the only officer on the Tallahassee Police Department's staff who has publicly illustrated his support for Florida State athletics. Multiple members of Angulo's personal network also work for the police force and have indicated a connection to FSU through their social media accounts.

The family of the alleged victim released a statement through their attorney on Nov. 20 calling into question whether TPD had conducted a fair and impartial investigation.

"If the victim had been aware that Winston's attorney was alerted as far back as February, she would have insisted that Tallahassee Police Department immediately collect DNA and interview, at the very least, Winston's roommate who witnessed the attack.

"The victim was devastated when she learned late last week that the Tallahassee Police Department had informed Winston's attorney as far back as February, which allowed him all of this time to create his defense and prepare his witnesses. The victim cannot fathom that the State Attorney's office was not given the same opportunity.

"The family was shocked to hear that Winston's attorney was not only aware of the case but had been told by Tallahassee Police Department that the case had been closed in February. All the while, the family was awaiting blood work results until early April."

She posed six questions the family wanted answered:

• If Winston's attorney was aware of the case in February 2013, why didn't Detective Angulo collect DNA evidence, interview Winston, and conduct a proper investigation?

• Why did it take Detective Angulo four months to verbally inform the family of the blood work results?

• Why was Winston not listed as the suspect in the police report once he was identified in early January?

• Why is it being represented in the press that the victim was intoxicated when Detective Angulo told the family that the victim was not intoxicated based on the blood work?

• Why didn't Detective Angulo or his superiors inform the State Attorney of the crime before the media sought a copy of the police report 11 months after the crime?

• Why was the Florida State University Police Department given a copy of the police report after it was determined they did not have jurisdiction, especially given the fact that Winston's attorney represents the Florida State University football team and they have a clear conflict of interest?

When reached for comment on the apparent connections between TPD officers and Florida State University, a TPD spokesman said the comment given by Tallahassee's interim Police Chief Tom Coe last Wednesday was the only one the department intended to issue at this time. Coe later released a statement on Wednesday that included a timeline of the case to "demonstrate TPD's professionalism and the investigative process of a sexual-battery case." The Tallahasse Democrat reported that the release of the timeline drew criticism from Winston's attorney.

"Please understand that my role as police chief is to protect the rights of everyone involved, the integrity of this investigation, and to make sure it's conducted fairly and impartially and we try to get to the truth in this case," Coe said. "Any statement made beyond that … has the potential to impact this investigation. Having a fair process that truly respects the rights of all involved is our most important priority at this point in time."

State Attorney Meggs said the information on the connections between TPD officers and Florida State University was illuminating, but would ultimately be more important to TPD than to his ongoing investigation.

"We're asking the right questions, and I think we're getting mostly the right answers and hopefully when we get all the questions we have answered, we'll have proof," Meggs told Yahoo Sports this week. "So this is helpful. It's good to know.

"It's probably going to be more helpful to the administration at the police agency than it is to this investigation. …I don't understand all these people who put themselves out in electronic media but that's what people do today."