A Fox Sports investigation has found that Florida State University officials and Tallahassee police took steps to conceal and obstruct the criminal investigation around Jameis Winston's rape accusation.
Among the findings:
The university's police chief obtained original police reports as well as supplemental reports from Tallahassee police on Nov. 8, 2013, at least four days before the case was turned over to (Willie) Meggs, the local prosecutor responsible for investigating serious crimes and filing criminal charges.
The university's police chief forwarded the reports to a high-ranking administrator in the Florida State athletic department, and within days they ultimately wound up in the hands of Winston's defense attorney -- also before Meggs was notified of the case and launched his own investigation.
Two critical witnesses -- Florida State football players who said they were present the morning of the alleged assault -- discussed the case with Winston's lawyer and ultimately signed affidavits at his behest backing the quarterback's version of the incident. That happened before law enforcement officers tried to talk to them about what they saw and remembered, a dramatic road block in the state attorney's effort to determine whether Winston should be charged with rape.
Evidence of FSU and police hiding and hindering a rape investigation comes as Florida State is currently under federal investigation into how it handled it when it allegedly occurred back in December 2012.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights are examining documents and interviewing administrators to determine if FSU complied with Title IX requirements around prompt investigations into reported sexual assaults.
It's not as though there weren't signs that the investigation was being held up on purpose - Meggs' comments last December, after snickering through his press conference to announce no charges would be filed against Winston:
It was there that Meggs curiously declined to criticize the police for failing to investigate the case for 11 months. Later in an ESPN interview, however, he turned much more serious, acknowledging that the delay did "hamper" the investigation. He added that Winston's refusal to talk to the authorities also was problematic. Meggs said an interview should have been attempted, but Winston already had a lawyer and was refusing.
"That's a hampering of an investigation," Meggs said. "We'll never know."
