Jameis Winston investigation updates: FSU settles after clearing QB

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston has reportedly settled the federal lawsuit filed against him by a woman, Erica Kinsman, who accused him of sexually assaulting her in December of 2012. The alleged incident occurred when he was the quarterback at Florida State University.

“The case has been resolved to the satisfaction of the parties,” John Clune, the woman’s attorney, told ESPN on Wednesday night.

Florida State has agreed to pay $950,000 to settle a lawsuit with the former student who accused former Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston of raping her in December 2012, her lawyers and the school announced Monday.

The student, Erica Kinsman, sued Florida State more than a year ago over what she viewed as an indifferent and insufficient response to her accusation. She sued under Title IX, the federal statute that regulates public universities’ handling of sexual assault and other sexually discriminant charges.

Winston is suing Kinsman for defamation, defamation per se and tortious interference with prospective business advantage.

Winston was investigated over the incident by Tallahassee police, and in late 2013 by the state attorney’s office, but no charges were filed. Florida State held a conduct hearing related to the incident but he was ultimately cleared there as well -- all three investigations concluded there was a lack of evidence supporting Kinsman’s claims.

This is all stemming from the same incident in December 2012 for which Winston was investigated in late 2013. In a statement, Kinsman’s attorney said, “Over the past two years, this survivor of sexual violence has had to endure a delinquent police investigation, a hostile FSU athletic department and Mr. Winston’s bullying lawyer.

“But the more these forces sought to silence her, the more determined she has become to step forward and hold Jameis Winston accountable for his actions. With the support of her family, she is prepared for this fight and for the counterclaims and the smear campaigns that will surely follow.”

Two judicial entities -- the State of Florida and a former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court -- have now decided there was insufficient evidence to find Jameis Winston guilty of sexual assault. With Winston’s university code of conduct hearing in the books, this matter is potentially over after a year and a half.

Here is what it means: one cannot fairly conclude that Winston deserves time in jail for what happened that night in December 2012.

Jameis Winston has been cleared by Florida State in his school code of conduct hearing, in response to a student at the school alleging that Winston had sexually assaulted her in 2012. Florida State released a statement regarding the decision from retired Florida Supreme Court justice Major Harding:

USA Today obtained a letter from Harding’s decision, which read that “the preponderance of the evidence has not shown” that Winston violated Title IX laws, and therefore, he will not be disciplined.

The statement, which was obtained by multiple media outlets including USA Today, detailed Winston’s account of the interaction with the woman who accused him of Dec. 7, 2012 sexual assault.

Winston’s statement is the first on-record comment he has made about the allegations.

Florida State University has delayed its hearing into whether quarterback Jameis Winston broke the student code of conduct by way of an alleged sexual assault in 2012, according to USA Today’s Rachel Axon. Tallahassee police investigated the accusation and decided not to press charges, but this is a separate investigation, undertaken by the school at the accuser’s request in 2014.

The delay, lobbied for by Winston’s attorney, would create a timeline that would ... well, it would likely work out favorably for the football team’s chances of winning all of its games, to say the least. According to Axon, the hearing would begin Dec. 1, the Monday after FSU’s final regular season game. However, it might so happen that no ruling would impact the Seminoles’ championship chances, because ...

According to the report -- which Fox claims was pieced together with law enforcement files, emails and video -- the chief of university police received supplemental reports from Tallahassee police on Nov. 8, 2013, four days before they were given to State Attorney Willie Meggs, the prosecutor responsible for investigating and potentially filing chargers in the case. The reports were then reportedly handed off to a high-ranking member of the athletic department and eventually Winston’s defense attorney, Tim Jansen. This effectively gave Winston and the school a head start on investigators.

Winston’s defense was also given first crack at key witnesses, per the report. Before police could speak with them, two Florida State football players who claimed to be present on the morning of the alleged assault sat down with Jansen and signed affidavits backing Winston’s account of the incidents.

The letter details the process Florida State took while investigating the sexual assault claims made by Winston’s accuser. The athletic department first heard of the incident in January 2013, roughly a month after it allegedly took place. Winston and two other teammates were brought in for interviews with the athletic department, but no one in the athletic department filed a formal report with the school’s Title IX administrator because no charges were filed by the police.

The Florida State campus police department and the university’s victim’s advocate department were also both aware of the incident soon after it happened, but campus police referred it to the Tallahassee Police Department since it allegedly took place off-campus. Neither department filed a Title IX report.

Wednesday’s Jameis Winston news: the Florida State quarterback’s attorney and the attorney representing his alleged sexual assault victim have been yelling at each other. Winston’s side is yelling that the other side offered to pay $7 million for the whole thing to go away. The other side is yelling that Winston’s lawyer is a disagreeable person, and so forth.

Tomahawk Nation has catalogued all the yelling, if you like to read such things.

Here’s more:

Tomahawk Nation notes the claim by Winston’s lawyer that the alleged victim said she would have never chosen to be with a “black boy.”

Florida State University has started a disciplinary inquiry into the sexual assault allegations brought by a former Florida State student against quarterback Jameis Winston nearly two years ago. Winston was never charged with any crime for the alleged assault.

An attorney named John Clune, who is representing the woman, told the New York Times he was pleased with the investigation, which apparently included more than an hour of university officials asking the accuser questions. He also told USA Today that he expects code of conduct charges to be brought against Winston, but there’s no other indication suggesting that will happen.

The New York Times has published a lengthy review of the investigation into a rape allegation against Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston and involving two of his teammates. It concludes with a line from a former assistant state attorney about “keeping players on the field” being “a priority” in Tallahassee.

It contains a few new details on Winston, and is a thorough summary of a side of the story (it does exclude some information that works in Winston’s favor and some that suggests a different conclusion), primarily the ineffective work done by Tallahassee police and by the school.

An investigation has been opened by the federal government into Florida State’s handling of Jameis Winston’s sexual assault case, Fox Sports reports. The government’s investigation will include all sexual assault cases involving Florida State students in the past three years, and will attempt to find whether administrators complied with Title IX regulations.

Fox Sports does not specify which government department is involved in the investigation.

Winston was accused in December 2012 of the crime. State Attorney Willie Meggs announced in November 2013 that no charges would be filed.

Carroll called for the state Attorney General to launch an independent investigation into this case and Tallahassee Police Department [update: TPD defends its work]. Carroll said the accuser is not considering civil litigation at this time.

State Attorney Willie Meggs announced his decision not to indict Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston Thursday, concluding an investigation of the likely Heisman Trophy winner.

Meggs’ decision set off a theater of absurdity, in which elected officials were cracking wise about sexual battery and Heisman Trophy voting, state senators and frat boys were sneaking into the background for moments of infamy, social media accounts of prominent broadcasters demonstrated some had lost their minds, and Florida State fans breathed a sigh of relief over the end of a case that never looked particularly strong to begin with.

Update: Meggs confirmed Winston will not be charged. Here’s a quick summary of some of his comments.

Winston has led the Seminoles to national-title contention and is the Heisman Trophy front-runner.

Update: Tomahawk Nation has obtained the unredacted Tallahassee Police report. Analysis of the detailed document shows it’s very unlikely Winston will be charged with a crime.

Here, though, Meggs has announced the press conference without notifying Winston’s attorney, Tim Jansen, of any charges:

Florida State will play Duke in the ACC Championship Game Saturday, and would play in the national title game in January with a win against the Blue Devils. Winston is considered a heavy favorite for the Heisman Trophy award. For more coverage, be sure to check out Tomahawk Nation.

• Projecting Championship Weekend: 66% chance of FSU-Ohio State

Tomahawk Nation has the full release, if you wish to read it in its entirety. The following is all according to the report:

The Police Department first responded to the case on Dec. 7, after it was brought to their attention by the university’s Police Department. For the next month, additional investigation followed, and on Jan. 10 the victim called the investigator and identified a suspect by name.

If the final decision is reached in two weeks, it would be announced between the ACC title game and the Heisman trophy presentation. Some have begun to wonder if the ongoing situation could cost Winston a shot at the Heisman, especially as voters continue to weigh off-field actions even more than ever.

The attorneys handling the case are reportedly waiting on evidence to arrive from the night in question, according to the CBS report and assistant state attorney Georgia Cappleman.

A Tallahassee woman accused Winston of sexual assault in December 2012, but the case went inactive a few months later. It was recently activated after a media inquiry prompted a review by the Tallahassee Police Department, and a DNA test proved Winston had an encounter with his accuser. However, that doesn’t mean a crime was committed. Winston reportedly has not spoken with authorities, and his attorney, Tim Jansen, maintains his client’s innocence.

Winston has led Florida State to a 10-0 start and a position at No. 2 in the BCS standings. With 2,938 passing yards and 28 touchdowns, he is a leading candidate for the Heisman Trophy.

In response to Wednesday night’s ESPN report that Jameis Winston’s DNA matches a sample taken in December from the person of his accuser, the Florida State quarterback’s lawyer said Thursday the results weren’t a surprise and that two witnesses back Winston’s story. He also expressed further frustration with the public nature of the case, as he likewise did last week.

The Heisman Trophy front-runner was accused in December 2012 of sexual battery in Tallahassee. The investigation went curiously dark for much of 11 months, with lawyers for both sides and the State Attorney hurling accusations tied to the case’s complexities.