The Tallahassee Police Department did a horrible job, which is no surprise to people who know anything about the TPD. They should be held accountable. Accusers (and the accused) deserve better.
It's also embarrassing how many FSU fans and students have acted in response to this, as it always is in these situations.
It's always worth pointing out how our institutions still fail to deal with sexual assault claims well.
Also, I feel comfortable saying that Winston is a slimeball about women, considering his long time very public (and very beautiful) girlfriend was arriving the very next day. He's brought this on himself to an extent.
All that being said, the article was quite misleading in trying to paint the guilt of Winston.
For the accuser's story to be true:
a) She was roofied...
b) by Winston himself. Her friends and she stated she was not intoxicated or acting intoxicated, meaning the only way Winston would have known her consent was invalid would be if he (or a partner) had drugged her...
c) with a new undetectable rape drug.
For her story to be true, Winston needs to have access to a special undetectable rape drug, or the state lab must have falsified multiple lab tests. For those of you who believe he's guilty, which do you believe? That Winston has a secret, undetectable rape drug, or that the state conspired to return false lab tests on a redshirt 4th stringer? It has to be one or the other.
Also, I found it pretty pathetic that they bolstered their story with Andy Ruiz, who prosecuted what was almost certainly a false accusation and nearly ruined Travis Johnson's life. Johnson was acquitted in minutes by an all-female jury. Ruiz has no credibility on this, and it is indirectly a further smear on Travis Johnson.
It also leaves out the fact that another FSU athlete, Greg Dent, a much more well known and valuable player than Winston at the time, was arrested, processed, thrown off the team, etc for sexual assault in another case.
