Seth Vigdor
While Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Jameis Winston was leading the pure destruction of the Eagles on Sunday, his lawyers were working feverishly to stop CNN from airing a documentary about rapes on college campuses. Before we move forward with why Winston was threatening such action on CNN, let’s take a look back at how we got here.
In December of 2012, a freshman at Florida State University reported that she was raped by a stranger. It turns out that a few weeks after the report was filed, it came out that the FSU QB, Jameis Winston was the suspect. As is the case with most college town “alleged” crimes that involve football players, a few weeks later the local prosecutor announced that there wasn’t enough evidence to formally charge Winston. I know it’s shocking, right (insert sarcasm). One year later, Florida State University conducted their own hearing, where wait for it…. they didn’t find the accusations from the accuser to be credible. Again, shocking!
Mind you, all of this was taking place around the time that the Seminoles won the National Championship in 2013. So if it sounds like there would be a reason for the school and for law enforcement in a small town like Tallahassee to find the accuser NOT credible, this would seem like the time that they’d want to protect their best interest.
As we’ve seen in the past with Jerry Sandusky and Penn State University, when the school’s best interest is involved, disgusting people will turn a blind eye for years – even if it involves kids being harmed. How long was Sandusky’s behavior allowed to go on at that school? Even a godlike figure like Joe Paterno in Happy Valley was given a pass for his weak attempt to bring law enforcement into the picture, while Sandusky the monster was raping boys. You get my drift at what is allowed to happen up at these schools, where football is life. It’s sick, twisted stuff.
Back to the Winston matter. The accuser, Erica Kinsman, would go on to file a civil suit against Winston accusing him of sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment and intentionally inflicting “emotional distress.” In the suit it was stated that “the cab driver who took her, Winston and two teammates to Winston’s apartment observed that she “appeared to be impaired.” At the apartment, Kinsman said that the FSU defensive end, Chris Casher wanted to participate in the sexual encounter and that Winston raped her, first in the bedroom, then in the bathroom.
Winston has filed a countersuit against Kinsman, stating that he didn’t rape her and that she is motivated by greed, which leads us to today.
Here’s a trailer for the documentary that did end up airing on Sunday night, titled The Hunting Ground:
You can read the notice from Winston’s attorney’s to CNN here.
Clearly the documentary doesn’t paint Winston in a right light and with the civil trial date set for 2017, the attorney’s don’t want to take any chances that this documentary sways public opinion.
There are only a few people that actually know what happened on that night in December 2012. This fight was always going to be an uphill battle for the accuser, so it’ll be interesting to see how things shake out. One thing is certain and that is that Winston and company are shook.