The Florida state’s attorney’s office has decided there was not enough evidence to charge Florida State’s red shirt quarterback Jameis Winston, who was accused of rape by a female FSU student, with a criminal felony.
The decision clears the way for Winston to maintain his eligibility and begin to write his acceptance speech for the Heisman Trophy, college football’s most prestigious award, which will be presented Dec. 14 in New York City.
Willie Meggs, the state attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit, formally announced the decision during a news conference Thursday afternoon at the Leon County Courthouse. Winston was facing felony charges after being accused of sexually assaulting the woman at an off-campus apartment on Dec. 7, 2012.
If Winston, a redshirt freshman from Bessemer, Ala., had been charged with a felony crime by the state attorney’s office, he would have been immediately suspended from the team and ineligible for competition under FSU athletics department policy. Now, Winston can finish the season with the top-ranked, 12-0 Seminoles, who are heavy favorites to defeat No. 20 Duke in Saturday night’s ACC championship game in Charlotte, N.C. and advance to the Jan. 6 BCS National Championship at Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena. Winston, who has passed for 3,490 yards with 38 touchdowns and five interceptions in his first season as a starter, is the clear front runner in the Heisman race. But many electors were waiting to learn the results of the criminal investigation before casting their ballots. The deadline for ballots is Monday.
It seems like a forgone conclusion that Winston will be the winner. The other contenders– quarterbacks Jordan Lynch of Northern Illinois, AJ McCarron of Alabama and Johnny Manziel of Texas A & M, who won last year as a red shirt freshman– have all had good seasons. Lynch would wind up with over 2,000 yards rushing if Northern finishes up a perfect season with a MAC title. McCarron could have won for life time achievement if Alabama defeated Auburn in the Iron Bowl and put the Tide in position to win a third straight national title. And Manziel actually had better numbers than last season.
But Winston has been in league of his own in this, his first year of competition.
College football, like college basketball, is producing more and more prodigies and voters are less likely to pass on greatness, regardless of age.
Winston has hardly come across as a choir boy after AP obtained police reports of his alleged involvement in a BB gun war with teammates that broke 13 windows in an apartment complex in 2012. But no charges were filed by the manager, who likely didn’t want to rock the boat with the best skill position college player in a rabid football town.
Meggs insisted Winston’s celebrity status in Tallahassee, played no part in his office’s decision not to prosecute
Meggs and his office investigated the case for the past three weeks, and they interviewed the accuser about two weeks ago. Last month, ESPN.com reported that DNA found in the woman’s underwear matched Winston’s DNA.
His attorney, Tim Jansen of Tallahassee, said Winston had consensual sex with the woman. But the woman’s attorney, Patricia Carroll of Tampa, Fla., said the star quarterback raped her 19-year-old client, who withdrew from classes at FSU after the allegations resurfaced in media reports last month
The accuser’s attorney released a statement after the press conference, indicating the victim and her family appreciate the State Attorney’s efforts to conduct a proper investigation after a longer than expected delay by the Tallahassee Police Department,” it read. “The victim in this case had the courage to immediately report her rape to the police and she relied on them to seek justice. The victim had grave concerns that her experience, as it unfolded in the public eye and through social media will discourage other victims to come forward and reporting.”
After hearing Meggs’ decision, Jansen said of Winston. “He’s absolutely innocent and I’m glad and pleased Willie had a full investigation and found the same thing we did.”
Meggs wouldn’t say whether his decision was a vindication for Winston, saying that he would “leave that to you all after you review the facts.”
He did reveal some new facts, saying that while Winston’s DNA was present in the sexual assault kit, the DNA of another male was also found, complicating the investigation. That person was identified as the victim’s boy friend and he was not associated with the complaint, according to Meggs. Meggs also added the accuser had no outward signs of trauma, a key point in trying to prove an assault. Search warrants in the case indicate the woman told police she was raped at an apartment after a night of drinking at a bar. In the warrant, the accuser says she and friends had shots at a local bar and “her memory is very broken from that point forward.”
Meggs said toxicology reports show the accuser had a blood alcohol level of .04 and that there was no evidence of drugs, including what are commonly referred to as date rape drugs. According to the warrants, the accuser says she remembers being in a cab with a man and going to an apartment before she was raped. Meggs said that investigators could not find the cab driver. Afterwards, the accuser said she remembers the suspect dressing her, putting her on a scooter and dropping her off at an intersection, but she had no idea where the alleged rape occured.
“Her recall of the events of that night have been moving around quite a bit,'” Meggs said
Meggs said he didn’t think the prosecution could put the accuser on the stand and :”count on her to prove elements of a crime.” .
