FSU under investigation for handling of Jameis Winston case

[alp227]

Source: USA Today

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation of Florida State University into whether its handling of the Jameis Winston rape allegations violated Title IX laws, a spokesman for the department confirmed to USA TODAY Sports Thursday.

An FSU student said she was raped by Winston on Dec. 7, 2012. Deadspin reported Thursday that school officials met with Winston in late January to discuss the alleged assault. But as it attempts to comply with Title IX, the school might have further violated the law. Both a lengthy delay in conducting the investigation and a meeting only with Winston contradict guidance given to schools in 2011 by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

Sexual harassment and violence are considered forms of sex discrimination under the 1972 federal law, which requires colleges and universities that receive federal funds to investigate claims of sexual assault and provide a timely and impartial grievance procedure to resolve those claims. Non-compliance with the law can result in the department revoking federal funding, although that has never happened.

Florida authorities announced on Dec. 5 that Winston would not face criminal charges, but an OCR investigation will put the case back in the spotlight. The woman filed her complaint with OCR in early March, 15 months after she reported the incident.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2014/04/03/jameis-winston-florida-state-rape-investigation-title-ix-civil-rights/7262359/

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Similarly the feds are investigating the University of Michigan for their handling of Brendan Gibbons, a student-athlete accused of rape. U-M expelled Gibbons in December 2013, nearly 4 years after the accusation against him.

[pennylane100]

1. One thing I do not understand about rape on campuses

Why are the crimes not reported to the police. The campuses, as I understand it, lives by the same laws as the city or area where their campus is located. The victim should go to the police instead of the school, and if they do go to the school, why does the school not call the police immediately.

This has always puzzled me.

[hughee99]

2. This has always confused me as well.

Last edited Fri Apr 4, 2014, 01:18 AM - Edit history (1)

If someone kills someone, do campus police and a student court handle it? Of course not. Why is rape different?

[alp227]

3. With rape, it's because alcohol and women needing to be modest and college PR,

from the greedy admins' perspective.

[SpartanDem]

4. The police certainly do as is often the case at public schools

since they to be tend actually sworn officers. I would image that is certainly imagine the case with a school the size of Florida. At Michigan State, the MSUPD had jurisdiction for all crimes on school property and cases prosecuted by the county.

[BainsBane]

5. the victim did go to police

But many universities have their own police forces and city or country police don't have jurisdiction on campuses.

[neohippie]

7. I don't know the facts but I can pass along some hearsay

I am an alumnus from FSU and have a lot of friends still living in Tallahassee and the unofficial story behind this investigation never really going very far is that the victim was supposedly part of a group of girls that called themselves cleat chasers, women who target top athletes as trophy catches.

I was also told that there was evidence about the victim belonging to this cleat chasers group which may have been a Facebook group from what was passed along to me when I attempted to find out what was going on with all the this at the time it was hitting the news. Many people don't realize that Winston is a two sport athlete and had already been offered major league baseball opportunities prior to his winning the football national championship and the Heisman Trophy. And it was a year before these titles were won that this rape allegedly took place.

The rumors were that she had previously had sexual relations with Winston, and further it was said that she had also slept with Winston and his roommate at the same time on another occasion, and that when the charges first arose with the Tallahassee Police Department.

All of this could be disinformation in an attempt to smear the reputation of the victim or it could be part of the explanation of why the investigation went the way that it did

Now I know that when rape victims pursue charges often the defense will attempt to smear the character of the accuser and that isn't any excuse for rape and if the sex wasn't consensual then the charges should move forward.

But it was my understanding the the victim initially claimed that she didn't know her attacker, but I was told that this was proven not to be true, that there were pictures of her and Winston together and that they had had sexual encounters previously without any charges of rape being raised.

Further it was said that the victim didn't bring any rape charge to anyone until after Winston wouldn't leave his girlfriend for a relationship with the victim.

I was also told that all of these things could be proven through other witnesses and when all of that was discovered, the DA considered pursuing charges for filing false statements in police reports.

Now all of that may be proven to be true or false, but I just thought that may shed some light on why the investigation took the turns that it did. If any of that is true then the victims credibility would be shattered. I realize that rape is a very serious offense, and that the accusations deserve a serious investigation but if the accusations are proven false, and these rumors are indeed true, then wouldn't Winston be the one who was victimized?

I don't really know what the truth is, if there is any truth to the rape allegations and there was some kind of cover up then FSU deserves to punished as much as Winston does, but if these things turn out to be true, then don't we all deserve to know the truth

[LeftyMom]

8. On what planet is this post appropriate?

[BainsBane]

10. Sounds like typical victim blaming to me

Which happens in every rape case and why so few are successfully prosecuted. There was a lot of evidence against him, and the federal government is investigating FSU for title IX violation in that case. Rapists never offend just once. This one will likely assault many more women, and the fact is too many think that is his right as a football player, while she is a mere woman. It is highly irresponsible of you to pass along victim blaming gossip, particularly on a liberal site that prohibits sexism and misogyny.

[Blue_Tires]

9. Because depending on the university

some campus police forces are notoriously inept:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/21/ecsu-chancellor-willie-gilchrist_n_3308484.html

[lark]

6. It's about damn time!

The Talahassee police need to be investigated too. They told the victim that she better keep quiet or it would go badly for her.

Disgusting!!!