The woman who alleges that Florida State University quarterback Jameis Winston raped her has filed a federal civil lawsuit against the school's trustees Wednesday. She claims that the school violated her rights by not investigating the incident as required by Title IX, and that they deliberately hindered the police's investigation.
In the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Orlando and obtained by BuzzFeed News, the alleged victim, who is listed as Jane Doe, asked for a trial by jury and damages from the school.
On Wednesday, ESPN reported that Winston — who is currently FSU's star quarterback — will be soon leaving the university for the NFL.
A spokesperson for Florida State told BuzzFeed News the school had no official statement, and said she had only just found out about the lawsuit on social media.
Winston's alleged victim claims that Winston raped her at his off-campus apartment in Dec. 2012. When she got home the next day she tweeted "SOMEONE HELP ME," before reporting the rape and going to the hospital.
She maintains that the school knowingly ignored mandated Title IX policies, and intentionally delayed the Tallahassee's Police Department's investigation "so that Winston's FSU football career would be unaffected."
Had FSU . . . instead complied with its own policies and federal law by promptly investigating plaintiff's rape and sanctioning Winston while protecting plaintiff's safety, Winston would have been removed as a threat to plaintiff long before ever suiting up to play football in a Seminoles jersey, and plaintiff would be on campus progressing toward an FSU degree ... Instead, plaintiff was forced to leave campus while Winston remains, having suffered no consequences.
Winston says that the encounter was consensual.
Last year, Florida's state attorney chose not to charge Winston with a crime, and according to the lawsuit, Florida Supreme Court justice Major B. Harding determined in Dec. 2014 that there wasn't enough evidence to indict Winston.
h/t The Orlando Sentinel.