Florida State files motion to dismiss Winston lawsuit
Florida State is seeking to dismiss the Title IX lawsuit brought against it by the woman who accused Jameis Winston of sexual assault.
Winston was never criminally charged with sexual assault and the retired Florida State Supreme Court justice assigned to his Florida State code of conduct hearing ruled evidence didn't show he was responsible for any violations of the school's code of conduct.
"Nothing about FSU's handling of this matter was unreasonable …" the filing said.
The motion, filed late Monday evening, was FSU's response to a federal lawsuit filed in January in the U.S. District Court's Middle District of Florida.
Its 23 pages document some of the steps FSU said it took to help Kinsman, including the use of two victim's advocates, who are bound by confidentiality laws.
"Far from being deliberately indifferent to Kinsman, FSU provided her the services of its confidential Victim Advocate Program within hours of her alleged sexual assault and continuously thereafter …" FSU's filing said.
The woman filed the lawsuit in early January, alleging that the school didn't properly investigate the matter. Florida State's handling of the investigation came under scrutiny throughout the entire saga, as attorneys for the accuser maintained the university didn't follow Title IX protocol.
The school maintains in the filing it didn't know about the allegations against Winston until November 2013, the same timeline the university detailed in an open letter of how it handled the accusation released in October.
The woman is no longer enrolled at Florida State and the lawsuit said she was forced to leave campus because of Florida State's indifference. The university countered in its dismissal, saying media reports led to backlash against her.
"Regrettably, the media's reporting of Kinsman's allegations led to an Internet and social media backlash — harassment that FSU did not cause, in an environment that FSU could not control …" the university's filing said. "Here, of course, FSU controls neither the Internet nor the vicious trolls who allegedly used it to harass Kinsman."
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!
