Florida State University (FSU) released a letter to address their handling of the sexual assault Jameis Winston was accused of, which attorneys for the alleged victim called "preventative damage control."
According to a copy of the letter obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, FSU's Title IX learned about the sexual assault claim just before the story went public in Nov. 2013. At that time, FSU said it offered support to Winston's accuser and encouraged her to cooperate with investigators.
As the alleged victim's attorney's pointed out, FSU admitted that its athletic department knew about the sexual assault in Jan. 2013, which was when the female student named Winston as her attacker. Since there were no new developments in the case since the alleged victim reported the attack in Dec. 2012, the Times reported, the FSU athletic department did not report it to the Title IX office.
"Florida State knows that there is a big story about to break from the NY Times and their PR team is trying to do a little preventative damage control," attorneys for Winston's accuser said in a statement. "The obvious news in this statement is that senior athletic department officials met with Winston and his lawyer one month after the rape occurred then decided to hide it from the Title IX office.
"What else can the school do wrong in this mess? The whole country is moving toward improving the response to campus rape while Florida State still backpedals the other way."
FSU also said they interviewed Winston and two teammates who were also witnesses to the alleged sexual assault and all three described the sexual contact as consensual, according to the Times. The alleged victim was inebriated that night and did not remember who were attacker was until she saw Winston in a classroom at the beginning of the semester.
When the story became public, the quarterback was en route to winning the Heisman Trophy and leading his team to an undefeated season ending in a BCS National Championship victory.
"We did not want you to confuse our silence with idleness, a lack of caring or, as some have alleged, an institutional conspiracy to protect a star athlete," the letter reportedly read.
FSU is currently under federal investigation for violations of Title IX, the federal gender equity law, in relation to this case. Their alleged shortcomings have already been detailed in an investigative piece in the New York Times published in April.
