Today, Florida State Attorney Willie Meggs held a press conference to announce that Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston will not be charged with sexually assaulting an unidentified alleged victim last December. The case has underlying themes of a police cover up, but Meggs says the victim's story was filled with contradictions. Affecting the case is the fact that the victim could not remember key aspects from the night in question.
"Her recall of the events of that night have been moving around quite a bit," Meggs said.
The conviction of two high school football players in Stubenville, Ohio on rape charges in 2011, as well as the false conviction of former high school All-American football player and current NFL free agent Brian Banks, are fresh in the minds of Americans. The notion of out of control athletes is a growing one. But the racial undertones inherent in any case where an African American male is convicted of rape, come into play as well – no matter what color the victim is. Black men have to fight against unfair assumptions whenever they head into court just because they are black men.
Last month, Florida State University quarterback and leading Heisman Trophy candidate Jameis Winston was accused of raping a woman last year. While the facts around the case have been somewhat sketchy, the victim alleges that the incident occurred in December 2012 and that she and her family took the case to the Tallahassee Police Department. But their attorney was advised by detectives not to pursue the case because Winston's status as a star athlete on one of the nation's top college football programs could spell trouble for the victim and her family.
The victim also alleges that a TPD detective named Scott Angulo refused to take a DNA test or even interview Winston's roommate during the initial investigation. The incident occurred a year ago and questions abound as to why the case took so long to come across the desk of State Attorney William Meggs. Conspiracy theorists are running rampant throughout the blogosphere as to reasons why. There were initial reports stating that Winston did have sex with the alleged victim, however the State Attorney says the 19-year-old's DNA was not found on the alleged victim.
According to reports, the victim waited a month after the incident is alleged to have occurred, to speak. Could she simply have been dealing with the mental and emotional trauma spurned from the incident? Was her delay in going to law enforcement more sinister in nature? Or was she pushed to file charges by her parents?
Reports say the victim claims she and friends were drinking at a local restaurant. But during the press conference, attorney Meggs says her "memory is very broken from that point forward. "Law enforcement officials have gone on to state that no further charges are to be filed against anyone and no further suspects are being investigated or looked for at this time.
