FSU, Tallahassee Police Reportedly Hindered Jameis Winston Investigation

Updates from Monday, Oct. 13

Brendan Sonnone of the Orlando Sentinel has the latest from Jimbo Fisher:

Updates from Saturday, Oct. 11

ESPN's Brett McManus reports on how the reports on the investigation have impacted the Seminoles, according to coach Jimbo Fisher:

Original Text

Fox Sports' Kevin Vaughan unearthed documents that reportedly detail the ways in which Florida State University and Tallahassee police impeded and obstructed the investigation into the sexual assault charges levied against quarterback Jameis Winston:

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University administrators and Winston’s attorney, Tim Jansen, had a head start on the state attorney in Tallahassee responsible for investigating and prosecuting serious crimes. Florida State administrators, for instance, had all the police reports at least four days before State Attorney Willie Meggs was handed the case.

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FSU's police chief reportedly obtained a copy of police reports from the night in question and forwarded them to a member of the school's athletic department. Eventually, the reports wound up in Jansen's hands.

Meggs doesn't take offense to the fact that FSU police had the reports, but "he remains mystified" that campus police would then give the report to university administrators.

According to Vaughan, Jansen had the reports before Meggs interviewed two key witnesses. The witnesses were FSU football players who signed affidavits after speaking with Jansen.

"I became pretty much of the belief that somebody had gotten his reports to his defense attorney, because he had already talked to our witnesses," Meggs said. "If he didn’t know about it, how does he know to interview them and get affidavits?"

Vaughan reported that on Jan. 11, 2013, Scott Angulo, a Tallahassee police detective, made his boss aware of the allegations of the incident from Dec. 7, 2012. Angulo's memo highlighted all of the pertinent info about Winston and also included that "Winston is a FSU football player."

Winston spoke with local authorities on Jan. 22, who were then contacted by somebody claiming to be "the athletic directors assistant." Winston had an interview with the police scheduled for the next day, but Jansen arrived in his place for what was labeled "a fact-finding mission" by a detective on the case.

"There was a whole long litany of things that we would have done," Meggs said to Fox Sports. "You don’t call the defendant to make an appointment to talk about putting him in jail."

According to Mike McIntire and Walt Bogdanich of The New York Times, the Tallahassee police's handling of Winston's case isn't an isolated incident.

The Times reporters discussed the case of Jesus "Bobo" Wilson, who was accused of stealing a student's motor scooter. They cast doubt on Wilson's story that he borrowed the scooter from a student. Wilson couldn't recall the student's full name:

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But for Officer Michael Petroczky, it was convincing enough to forestall an arrest.

The officer, noting in his report that Mr. Wilson was a Florida State football player, wrote: "Wilson was not arrested today because he cooperated, showed no signs of guilt and provided a plausible story that needs to be investigated."

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"(Petroczky) told me that he had not arrested Wilson because he was a football player, and he did not want to 'ruin' his record by arresting him" in the event the Wilson might be innocent said the student whose scooter was stolen in an email to McIntire and Bogdanich.

Authorities charged Wilson with third-degree grand motor theft. Jansen, who also represented Wilson, got the charges knocked down to two misdemeanors in early September, per Jared Shanker of ESPN.com.

McIntire and Bogdanich also uncovered that "at least 13 football players have been implicated in a string of wild public shootouts with CO2-powered BB and pellet guns." The incidents have led to thousands of dollars of damages, and until recently, none of the cases have led to any arrests.

"I take seriously the responsibility entrusted to us to keep them safe and also hold them accountable for their actions," said Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo, per McIntire and Bogdanich.

David Northway, who serves as the Tallahassee police spokesman, said that identifying possible suspects as FSU players is in keeping with department policy about notifying superiors of cases that involve high-profile local figures.

Bogdanich wrote in April that local police mishandled the Winston investigation in a few very important ways:

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After the accuser identified Mr. Winston as her assailant, the police did not even attempt to interview him for nearly two weeks and never obtained his DNA.

The detective handling the case waited two months to write his first report and then prematurely suspended his inquiry without informing the accuser. By the time the prosecutor got the case, important evidence had disappeared, including the video of the sexual act.

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According to Bogdanich's timeline of the Winston investigation, Angulo closed the case on Feb. 11, 2013, without interviewing key witnesses. In November 2013, nearly a year after the incident allegedly occurred, investigators began interviewing key witnesses and obtained Winston's DNA.

The investigators only pursued a case against Winston after being pressed by local reporters, per Grantland's Bryan Curtis.

"It deserves an explanation from the cops," Curtis wrote. "Their explanation, in turn, deserves our scrutiny. There are unimportant mysteries and important ones. This is one of the latter."

Vaughan's report also alleges that FSU campus police told local reporters that an investigation of Winston wasn't underway, which it in fact was.

He explained that "those police officials were involved in updating Florida State administrators on the case and helping formulate the school's public relations response in the first days after the explosive story became public."

Florida State has already released a statement about what it felt was "misinformation in the media," per The Associated Press, via ESPN.com:

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Florida State said the only people aware of the incident before January 2013 were Tallahassee police, campus police and the victims advocate program. The decision not to seek charges was made after Winston's lawyer said the Tallahassee Police Department was 'no longer pursuing the case,' and Winston and his roommates said the sex was consensual.

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In December 2013, Meggs gave a press conference announcing that he wouldn't pursue sexual assault charges against Winston. With no legal action taken against Winston, the FSU star finished the 2013 season, winning the Heisman Trophy and leading the Seminoles to the national championship.

Winston has since been caught on video stealing crab legs from a local Publix grocery store and was suspended by the school for his team's game against Clemson after yelling an obscene phrase on the Florida State campus.

According to ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach, Florida State will hold a disciplinary hearing for Winston regarding the sexual assault charges from 2012. Winston could face up to four violations of the school's student conduct code.