Florida State agrees to pay Winston accuser $950,000 to settle suit

[thelakelander]

Florida State has settled a federal Title IX lawsuit with Erica Kinsman, a former student who said she was raped by quarterback Jameis Winston in 2012.

The settlement was announced on Monday, more than a year after she initially filed the complaint in federal court.

FSU agreed to pay Kinsman $950,000 – an amount that includes attorney's fees – as well as make a five-year commitment to awareness, prevention and training programs. The lump sum is the largest settlement for Title IX claims regarding indifference to a student's reported sexual assault.

"I will always be disappointed that I had to leave the school I dreamed of attending since I was little," Kinsman said in a statement. "I am happy that FSU has committed to continue making changes in order to ensure a safer environment for all students."

Full article: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2016/01/25/florida-state-settles-title-ix-lawsuit-erica-kinsman-jameis-winston/79299304/?hootPostID=773734469b55a76d18ba224143355a5d

[coredumped]

That whole program is corrupt.

[Tacachale]

Apparently, the Department of Education investigation continues. Kinsman is also still suing Winston, who is counter-suing her. I would have hoped there would have been a more thorough look at the Tallahassee PD outside of the Title IX suit.

[Gators312]

With the amount of funding on the line in a Title IX suit, this settlement makes total sense.  Why even chance it with a judge.  Aside from additional litigation costs. 

There was some feet dragging on the part of FSU, TPD, and with Jimbo's testimony that he was unaware of some of FSU policies the settlement is really the best outcome imo.

[Bridges]

Under a mil for settling.  Yeah, FSU was the winner here.  Clearly the lawyers for Kinsman didn't want to take it further.  All you need to know is that she was set to be deposed the day after the settlement was announced.

It does now give her some more money to pursue Jameis.  That case is over a year away.  Winston wants to fight it to clear his name...for the 4th time.  But, at some point you have to just say the cash drain of fighting it is not worth trying to clear his name.  Those who don't believe him will continue to ignore it. 

[Tacachale]

Winston will be the harder target, honestly. There's evidence of what FSU and the cops did to botch the investigation, but thanks to that, there's no solid evidence on Winston. Maybe he'll settle to make it go away, but he doesn't seem to have much in the way of good judgement and decision making skills.

FSU's damage will be to its reputation. No school wants to be known as the place that mishandled a rape investigation to protect a star jock, and that's how a lot of people see them now. I doubt the police department will suffer as much as they deserve.

[Gators312]

Winston will be the harder target, honestly. There's evidence of what FSU and the cops did to botch the investigation, but thanks to that, there's no solid evidence on Winston. Maybe he'll settle to make it go away, but he doesn't seem to have much in the way of good judgement and decision making skills.

FSU's damage will be to its reputation. No school wants to be known as the place that mishandled a rape investigation to protect a star jock, and that's how a lot of people see them now. I doubt the police department will suffer as much as they deserve.

I agree.  The only merit to Kinsman's case was the liability on the part of TPD and FSU to do their due diligence in this type of situation.  I don't think a jury would find in her favor based on the info that we currently know.   The only person Winston should pay is Casher for destroying the cell phone video.   It probably would have proved his innocence, but once TMZ etc got a hold of it....man what a sh*t storm.   

[RattlerGator]

Gators312, in no universe known to man do your boys destroy a video that CLEARS YOU (remember, the video was destroyed on orders from his defense attorney). That's just crazy thinking, to me. It's also obvious to most of the nation that FSU and TPD obviously sabotaged the investigation when the chick informed them immediately she had been at Potbelly's.

Pretty obvious reason why the investigator didn't immediately secure the video from Potbelly's.

Also pretty obvious why FSU purposely didn't do what they knew they were legally required to do -- conduct a Title IX investigation.

Which is why they had to spend $1.7 million with a Jax law firm only to agree to this spanking that requires five years of extra effort and publicly produced reports on those extra efforts. The Noles now get to enjoy five years of extra scrutiny and zero tolerance . . . and they aren't out of the woods yet with the federal Title IX investigation.

No, Kinsman pretty clearly bent them over her knee and secured the biggest Title IX recovery in history. Thrasher talked crazy yang about the split of recovery which was immediately disputed by the attorneys. She's clearly driving the train right now and Jameis is quite likely going to beg to settle.

As I've said on other forums, a bunch of FSU fans don't seem to understand that cleat chasers *can* be raped so their whole defense isn't actually an absolute defense at all. FSU better hope and pray the New York Times isn't sitting on some really explosive investigatory material right now because that is *very* possible.

[JeffreyS]

Where did you find out Winston's defense ordered the video distorted?   Very possibly true but don't confuse rumor with stated facts.

[RattlerGator]

Look, they're never going to admit that but none of us are social virgins here. The odd things that surround this case don't just occur by happenstance, they are purposely orchestrated. This is from the New York Times investigation:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/16/sports/errors-in-inquiry-on-rape-allegations-against-fsu-jameis-winston.html

Mr. Casher made a startling admission: he had secretly videotaped part of the sexual encounter through the partly opened bedroom door, and deleted the video from his phone a couple of days later. Had the police found him quickly, they might have obtained that video.

Mr. Casher had never mentioned the video in the affidavit he submitted with the help of Mr. Winston's lawyer. Even so, officers did not ask why he had omitted that important fact, why he had deleted the video or whether he had shared it with anyone. And though Mr. Casher said he had a new phone, the officers did not ask what he did with the old one.

This is a bit of the relevant timeline:

2013 10.25: Friday. Erica Kinsman's victim advocate tells her that a second woman has come forward and reported being raped by Winston. The advocate asked if Kinsman would cooperate with and participate in disciplinary proceedings against Winston and she reportedly says yes.

2013 11.08: Friday. TPD receives an inquiry from the Tampa Bay Times about a reported investigation into Jameis Winston. Someone from TPD immediately notifies FSU Police Chief David L. Perry about the inquiry and sends Chief Perry the police reports at Perry's request. Chief Perry then forwards those police reports on to Monk Bonasorte that same night and Bonasorte then notifies Head Coach Jimbo Fisher.

2013 11.08: Incredibly, Jameis Winston's lawyer (Gator grad Tim Jansen) also received a copy of those reports. When questioned about where he received a copy of the unreleased reports, Jansen said that "he got them from a guy in town" who, more than likely, was a member of the FSU Athletics Department.

2013 11.12: Tuesday. Curiously, FSU Dean of Students Jeanine Ward-Roof, who supervises Code of Conduct proceedings at FSU, emails FSU Police Chief David L. Perry and others at FSU stating that no disciplinary proceedings against Winston were going to take place. This is done with the personal knowledge that at least two FSU female students had reported problematic sexual encounters with Jameis Winston, something that only FSU officials were likely privy to.

**********

There's more. Little of it beneficial to FSU. Simpleton efforts to construct theoretically plausible deniability run throughout the sabotaged investigation. No matter what nonsense they're trying to spin now, that's why FSU was thoroughly spanked by Erica Kinsman and settled for a million dollars and agreed to all the extra efforts.

[MusicMan]

There was no rape. If evidence supported that then Winston would be in Jail. Kinsman is a slut. She will get her ass handed to her in the counter suit filed by Winston. The evidence (that which has been reviewed by State Attorney, the FSU Student Code of Conduct Review Board and a retired Florida Supreme Court Justice) clearly shows there was no rape. Once a Jury reviews all the evidence Kinsman's suit will be dismissed and Winston will have a press conference.

The Hater's gonna hate cause that's what they do.

27-2

Bill Cosby, now that's another matter.

[funwithteeth]

There was no rape. If evidence supported that then Winston would be in Jail. Kinsman is a slut.

What an abhorrent string of words.

[MusicMan]

I'm sorry your offended.

It's the multiple semen samples they found in her under garments that are troubling to many................

Like I said, there will be a trial and she will get her ass beat. A poor investigation does not change the actual facts of the case.

I'm a fan of FSU but not Winston.  For the folks who hate FSU and Winston no trial will ever be good enough, so I'm not worrying about them.

[MusicMan]

Fair enough.

Lost my "cherry" to a Baptist preachers daughter when I was 15 (she was older).

And she was definitely the one in charge.

[RattlerGator]

For the record, I like Jameis. He's intelligent as heck and a heck of a quarterback. FSU likely did him no favors by freaking out in this case. Of course, neither did he do himself any favors with this kind of (at best) risky, young-and-dumb behavior. I think the boy has a touch of Asberger's and has a hard time with social boundaries.

These are weird times and young people are emboldened to do ever-more outrageous things and to tell ever-more outrageous lies in the aftermath of those actions. The only thing we know for certain is they (FSU & TPD) unquestionably sabotaged the investigation (and I believe at least one attorney and one investigator from the State Attorney's Office was in on the effort). What we will probably never know, however, is whether [1] they engaged in a heroic effort to save a male student and athlete from an outrageous lie that would ruin his life and career or, [2] whether they engaged in a damn-near criminal conspiracy to deny a female student and rape-victim her deserved justice.