I just stumbled upon this thread, and being an FSU alum wanted to read my fellow greekchatters opinions. The one thing I came away with is that we form the best opinions when we avail ourselves of different views. Just as some will think that FSU leapt to the defense of their star quarterback, the NYT's has it's own moneymaking agenda, and picks and chooses the information it uses to construct articles. Don't take any news reported by any source verbatim. I have linked the official response by FSU to the NYT article and I am trying to find the police transcripts, which paint a different picture than the media portrays. If I find them, I will post the link.

http://www.tomahawknation.com/2014/4...jameis-winston

http://fsunytimes.fsu.edu/

Found the case files. Here is the link:

http://ncaa.blog.chatsports.com/file...-Case-File.pdf

And for those who don't have the inclination to read all 243 pages, this is a link to a synopsis of the files. I do not know the analyst personally, so cannot attest to his accuracy, and being an FSU fan, he has a certain bias. I read the complete files when they were first released, but I will withhold my opinion, because I don't want to introduce bias. i do hope some of you will read and discuss.

http://www.tomahawknation.com/2013/1...tion-documents

This needs to be QFT.

On of my peeves with the Winston case and the New York Times piece is the accusation that Florida State and the TPD protected him because he was their star football player. This narrative doesn't fit with the facts, but it's an easy sell to folks because using 20/20 hindsight is just human nature. When the alleged assault and initial investigation took place, Jameis Winston wasn't the star quarterback/Heisman contender that he was when the accusations were made public. He was a just another football player on the team, although the fans who follow recruiting closely would recognize his name.

In July of last year (after the Winston alleged assault but before it became public) the TPD charged Greg Dent, who was expected to be a starting receiver with the Seminoles, with sexual assault and the team suspended and then dismissed him.

Does it make sense that the police and the University would protect an unproven player while contemporaneously hanging a star out to dry immediately? No, it doesn't, but the media does love to sell their narrative to an unsuspecting public.

Does it really matter whether it was malice or incompetence? The bottom line here is that they did a shitty job of investigating.

Did you have a chance to read the case files yet?

I don't know that they did or didn't, because we don't have all the facts. The school is constrained by very strict confidentiality rules (designed to protect victims) and the TPD is constrained by our legal system - ie, they need probable cause to arrest Winston. The accuser's attorney is under no such constraints and can lob accusations to the media.

The police report very clearly states that the investigation reached a point where the accuser was unsure of whether she wanted to go forward with a complaint. They left the case open, pending a time when the accuser might change her mind. The accuser's attorney has disputed this claim by TPD but has offered nothing to back it up.

From the initial police report: "This case is being suspended at this time due to a lack of cooperation from the victim. If the victim decides to press charges, the case will be pursued."

The second link pretty clearly undermines your point that you don't want to introduce bias. That guy picks apart the inconsistencies of the victim's statements and her friends, while completely and totally ignoring those of Winston and his friends.

In any case, the problem comes in with things like p84. Why would a police investigator need to go through the athletic office to talk to Winston or his friends? Why are members of the athletic staff claiming to serve as representatives of the football players involved?

Did you read the police report, or just the news article (complete with glaring factual errors) that you linked to? The police would never be able to get a conviction against those guys.

Which is precisely why the university should take action.

What were the inconsistencies of Winston and his friends?

"I went into the room to play a joke on him, oh, wait, I mean I actually went into the room to ask if I could have sex with her too."

In any case, it's not germane to the point of how FSU handled this. FSU clearly rallied around Winston, as evidenced by the fact that the athletic department intervened when the university was contacted by the police. That's not an acceptable way to treat an accusation of any crime.

Rape happens a lot, and it's poorly handled on college campuses. I don't know why you are so invested in arguing the merits of individual cases when the point is that campus rape is a problem.

Yes, I've heard it happens a lot. 1 in 5. Even the President is using this made up statistic now. I'm not buying it. That would make our college campuses more dangerous than the worst of our inner cities. I'm the mother of a beautiful and precious rising college junior. If I believed her college campus was as dangerous as you are claiming, I'd make her live at home and attend a local school. And so would scores of other caring parents.

I'm invested in the truth, not hysteria. Your framing of the issue is very telling - let's not focus on individual cases and facts. But there are real individuals behind each of them, and real consequences for the men too. There ARE rapes on college campuses. But drunken, regretted, disrespectful hookup sex between friends and aquaintences is the much bigger problem behind the statistics. And it's foolish to think our colleges can adjudicate the vast majority of these situations fairly or with due process for both parties. Rape is a serious felony, and it should be treated as such. We don't expect our college administrators to handle any other felonies (murder, serious assault). Why do we have an exception for rape?