Lawyer of alleged victim in Jameis Winston case says Winston's attorney tried to pay off accuser
A lawyer representing the woman who accused Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston of rape released a statement Wednesday afternoon saying that Winston’s attorney offered to pay the alleged victim to stay silent about the incident. This statement contradicts what Winston’s attorney, David Cornwell, wrote in a letter to Florida State that surfaced on TMZ Wednesday morning.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, John Clune, a Title IX lawyer who represents the alleged victim, issued the statement in response to Cornwell’s claim that Patricia Carroll, a lawyer for the accuser, asked for $7 million to “never hear from (the accuser) or (Carroll) again – in the press or anywhere.”
The lengthy statement says that Cornwell leaked the letter to TMZ himself “at a time when Mr. Winston is suffering from the negative attention of his own continuing misconduct of last week.”
In reference to Florida State’s continuing Title IX investigation into the alleged incident from December 2012, Clune also says “Cornwell appears to know that Mr. Winston is about to be charged by Florida State with sexual assault and this letter seems to be his final attempt to prevent FSU from complying with federal law.”
Clune then goes on to say that it was Cornwell, not Carroll – the accuser’s former counsel – who discussed “paying off” the accuser.
The statement continues:
“Patricia Carroll didn’t even know who David Cornwell was until he called. Mr. Cornwell then himself flew down from Atlanta to negotiate with Ms. Carroll. Settlement discussions were immediately unproductive as Cornwell was crude and insulting going so far as to say ‘your client likes to [expletive] football players.’ When told that the client’s main concern was not money but that Winston be held accountable for his actions, Cornwell threatened to sue our client and her parents for civil racketeering in an effort to intimidate them into staying quiet."
Clune goes on to say that Cornwell misrepresented the timeline in which the accuser reported the incident.
“Mr. Cornwell additionally and inaccurately portrays that our client chose to file a complaint ‘two years later.’ The truth is that the University approached our client in October of 2013 and asked her for the first time whether she would cooperate with disciplinary charges against Mr. Winston after the school received a second report of sexual misconduct by another woman.”
After a 11-month delay in the case, Winston was never charged due to a lack of evidence.
Florida State interviewed Winston in January as a part of the ongoing Title IX investigation. Clune said previously that the woman was interviewed by FSU in August and that he expected FSU to bring code of conduct charges up against the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback.
Meanwhile, Cornwell maintains that Winston will continue to cooperate with the investigation and that he “looks forward to clearing his name.”
For more Florida State news, visit Warchant.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
