I am not a football fan and never have been. To be honest, I have never really enjoyed organized sports in general. Most times when football is on the TV screen I couldn’t even tell you what’s happening, let alone who is playing. With all this being said, there is, however, one football player I know of very well, Jameis Winston.
This is not because he won the Heisman trophy, led his team to the rose bowl, or was the number one draft pick in the NFL. Frankly, all of these things mean absolutely nothing to me. What really does resonate with me are not his record-breaking titles, but his history of raping two women and never facing any consequences.
In December 2012 Erica Kinsman was raped while attending school at Florida State University. Erica went to the hospital where a routine rape kit was performed to collect DNA that can be used to identify the rapist. Chief of police, David Perry, also responded to get a report of the events that occurred that night.
As days past, both Florida State University and Florida Law enforcement did not follow up with this investigation.
A month later after returning back for a second semester, Erica took her seat in a lecture hall and was shaken to the core by what she saw. Sitting in the same room with her was her rapist whom she did not at the time know the name of. Erica fought every instinct in her body telling her to flee the scene and instead struggled to hold herself together so she could hear his name called from the attendance sheet. It was on this day that she learned her attackers name, Jameis Winston.
When she brought this information to officer Perry she was told “This is a huge football town. You really should think long and hard whether you want to press charges or not”. Anyone who does not see this as a direct threat towards a rape victim by trying to scare them out of pressing charges, please let me know. I’d love to enlighten you on some blatantly obvious facts.
As Jameis played football game after football game for FSU, Erica’s rape kit sat untouched. It wasn’t after the end of the football season that Florida State University finally got around to testing the DNA that had been sitting there waiting for the school and law enforcement to take action. The DNA confirmed Jameis as Erica’s attacker. It was around this time that Erica was made aware by her victim’s advocate that Jameis had also sexually assaulted another girl.
You would think that the discovery of the DNA match in conjunction with a second victim’s testimony would open the schools eyes and get the ball rolling right? Sadly, no.
Weeks after the football season ended Jameis was finally called in to testify. Coincidence? I think not. Jameis refused to answer any questions. Rather than meeting with Erica to get her side of the story FSU decided to terminate the case.
Jameis went on to continue playing for the rest of his time at Florida State and then for the NFL on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He faced no academic or legal consequences for his actions.
Erica, after being harassed and threatened (both online and in person), dropped out of her dream school Florida State University.
This is just one case out of the millions covered up by Universities who have larger agendas. Do not be fooled, Florida state was not oblivious to anything that was going on. They absolutely knew what they were doing. Jameis was a star athlete crucial to their winning season, while Erica was one person standing in the way. Florida State did what far too many wealthy institutions do when faced with such situations; burry their case, make it impossible for them to win, and eliminate the victim as a threat to their perfect shinning record.