A Tallahassee Police Department detective allegedly told the alleged victim of a sexual assault last December by current Florida State quarterback and Heisman Trophy front-runner Jameis Winston that “Tallahasee was a big football town” and she needed to “think long and hard before proceeding” against the quarterback because her life would be made “miserable.”
On Tuesday, the Tallahassee Democrat reported the woman’s representatives sent an email deciding not to press charges against Winston earlier in the year from an alleged incident from December of 2012. After those e-mails were released, the woman’s family released a statement through the Tampa Bay Times, on Wednesday, saying recent events have compelled them to do so.
The woman’s family wrote that they “grew concerned” that the woman would be targeted on campus when she identified her perpetrator as Jameis Winston in January. The victim learned that Winston’s attorney was informed in February and questioned why the police did not interview Winston’s roommate, who allegedly witnessed the attack.
When the victim went to the police, a detective allegedly told her that her life “will be made miserable” if she went forward:
When the attorney contacted Detective Angulo immediately after Winston was identified, Detective Angulo told the attorney that Tallahassee was a big football town and the victim needs to think long and hard before proceeding against him because she will be raked over the coals and her life will be made miserable.
The family also said it was still awaiting the results of tests in April when Winston’s attorney was told that the case had been closed even though the family was presumably not informed of the same.
The alleged victim’s family wants to know why police did not interview Winston or collect DNA evidence, why police waited four months to inform the victim’s family, why Winston was not listed as a suspect in the January report, why the victim is being represented as someone who was drunk when blood work indicated she was not, why didn’t the detective inform the State Attorney before the media sought the police reports last week, and why was Florida State University Police Department given a copy of the police report after it was determined they did not have jurisdiction.
The family said the victim was “devastated” when she found out only last week that the Tallahassee Police Department informed Winston’s attorney last February, allowing him to prepare his defense and witnesses while the State Attorney’s Office was not allowed to do the same because they were never told.
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