Jameis Winston, college football's reigning Heisman Trophy winner, is in investigative limbo again as Florida State University looks into a Title IX inquiry levied by the female student who says she was sexually assaulted by the football player in 2012.
In December, during the heat of the Heisman Trophy race and the FSU's national title hunt, the university's attorney, Willie Meggs, announced that he would not file sexual assault charges against Winston after investigating charges against him for
nearly a year, according to ESPN.
Winston has maintained all along that the sexual encounter with his 19-year-old accuser was consensual. But the woman, who has since left the school, claimed that she was raped. Now, she has filed a Title IX complaint, which deals with sex discrimination at educational institutions.
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USA Today reported this week that Florida State officials interviewed the woman again in August along with two other people connected with the case as part of the Title IX inquiry.
"They assured us that the Title IX process was going to move forward," John Clune, the woman's attorney, told USA Today. "The interview went pretty well. I think it was a positive experience, and everyone felt like the university was taking it very seriously."
"We expect that there will be code of conduct charges that will be brought. There's no basis not to bring those charges now," he continued.
David Cornwall,
a legal advisor for Winston's family, told AL.com in a statement that the woman's attorney forced the university into the investigation and also said it had no merit.
"The real story here is that after her Colorado attorneys created a media frenzy alleging that Florida State University failed to comply with its Title IX obligations, Ms. (name redacted) had to come clean and admit that she previously refused to cooperate with the university's Title IX inquiry," the statement read.
"Now that she has finally done her Title IX interview, this is the fourth time Ms. (name redacted) has told her story. We anticipate the same conclusion that followed her previous three statements to the Tallahassee Police Department, Florida's State Attorney's Office, and in the FSU Code of Student Conduct hearing."
A Title IX inquiry, which has a lower burden of proof than a criminal case, can have serious consequences. Oklahoma linebacker Frank Shannon was recently suspended from the team and school for a year in August following a Title IX complaint filed by a female student, AL.com noted.
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