Documents: Police, FSU hampered Jameis Winston investigation : Fox Sports News

[Stuart G]

Last edited Sat Oct 11, 2014, 07:42 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/jameis-winston-florida-state-tallahassee-police-hindered-investigation-documents-101014?cmpid=tsmtw:fscom:foxsports

Kevin Vaughn
Fox Sports, Oct 10, 4:23pm

Florida State University officials and Tallahassee police took steps to both hide, and then hinder, the criminal investigation into a rape allegation against the school's Heisman-trophy winning quarterback Jameis Winston last fall, a FOX Sports investigation has found.

The upshot: University administrators and Winston’s attorney, Tim Jansen, had a head start on the state attorney in Tallahassee responsible for investigating and prosecuting serious crimes. Florida State administrators, for instance, had all the police reports at least four days before State Attorney Willie Meggs was handed the case.

After learning in December of 2013 that no charges would be filed, FOX Sports examined thousands of pages of documents — including law enforcement files, e-mails and other correspondence as well as video and audio interviews conducted by detectives and other records — through a series of requests filed with multiple agencies under Florida's public records laws.

Among the findings:


• The university's police chief forwarded the reports to a high-ranking administrator in the Florida State athletic department, and within days they ultimately wound up in the hands of Winston's defense attorney — also before Meggs was notified of the case and launched his own investigation.

• Two critical witnesses — Florida State football players who said they were present the morning of the alleged assault — discussed the case with Winston's lawyer and ultimately signed affidavits at his behest backing the quarterback's version of the incident. That happened before law enforcement officers tried to talk to them about what they saw and remembered, a dramatic road block in the state attorney's effort to determine whether Winston should be charged with rape.

Here is another article on the so called "disciplinary hearing" that Winston will face next week:

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/11678392/florida-state-seminoles-quarterback-jameis-winston-facing-disciplinary-hearing

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This is a very well researched article, ) worth reading how this was covered up..We are talking about a formal charge of "rape" against an individual. The writers did extensive research to make these charges against police and the university. I wonder what will happen now? This article is damning in many ways. It almost proves illegal action by police and university officials. Please read the article yourself. It reminds me of what was done at Penn State, but in some ways worse. This is about a formal charge of rape that was covered up by local police. (and the second paragraph is really hard to believe)
After some research, I found that this article is at the heart of the charges against police and university officials.. This is the smoking gun that could bring some people down. The FSU now says it will interview Winston, and steps may be taken..This is quite ugly. We will see.

[Ilsa]

1. Bring it out into the open; let those a-holes lose their

Jobs over covering for a rapist. Then others will think twice about covering for a college student/athlete.

[Stuart G]

2. I agree with you. I hope that is what happens

But this particular student athlete won the "Heisman Trophy" He is not just "another athlete". And he is still on campus. Still at the Florida State University today. What do you think will happen now?

[Ilsa]

3. At the time of the beginning of the investigation,

He wasn't yet considered a contender for the Heisman based on his fsu performance. Manzel had just won it. Winston was a red-shirt freshman, if i read it right. Winston won the Heisman in Dec 2013, after a year of cover-ups.

I don't think anything will happen to him. And his team is still ranked 1 or 2, depending on which poll. Maybe the PD, FSU people get demoted or fired.

The only possible justice will come if professional teams decide that Winston is too much trouble to draft.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Corruption ...

it's what Pols do.

[d_r]

5. another article from NY times

When you put this together with the fox sports article, the picture is pretty ugly

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/us/florida-state-football-casts-shadow-over-tallahassee-justice.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LargeMediaHeadlineSum&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0&referrer=

[Stuart G]

8. This is a long article, and it too is worth the time.

It shows special treatment to football players. Stolen items, shoot outs with BB guns, and more. You are correct d_r, the picture is pretty ugly. The two articles prove that there are two justice systems, one for the privileged and another for those not privileged. The second shows that the privileged escape easily, while others don't. How will the college town deal with this one? Penn State still plays football on a national level. I suspect that FSU will do the same.

[KG]

6. the ray rice incident has really ripped the curtain down

[Shrike47]

7. I have no trouble believing the second paragraph.

I was an attorney for many years in a college town. The lawyer who represented almost all of the student athletes accused of criminal behavior got reports, affidavits from potential witnesses, etc. while the D.A.'s office was still waiting for a report. The defense attorney in question was also a hell of a good trial attorney and most of the Assistant D.A's we're afraid of him, with good reason. He rarely lost at trial.

That's the way of our world. Rich people do the same thing, but we don't usually get to see it.

[FLPanhandle]

9. By comparison the University of Florida immediately suspended their QB

As soon as the allegations were made.

FSU is also feeling some heat in the State of Florida by comparison.