Potential Victim Warned by Police: The Curious Case of Jameis Winston

((ht: tampabay.com))

For those of you not up to speed, there appears to be a sexual assault case from late 2012 that may or may not implicate Florida State redshirt freshman phenom Jameis Winston.

The victim in the case, a then Florida State University student says she was attacked after a rendezvous with a yet unknown male at a Tallahassee area bar in November of 2012. She called police, who responded to her apartment and filed a report. While making the report, the woman identified Winston as the alleged perpetrator.

Her family released a statement Wednesday morning to the St. Petersburg (FL) Times. The statement says she was told, her life could "Be Made Miserable" and that Tallahassee was "A Big Football Town".

That statement was not given with context.

The part of this report that is concerning many is this: Very little, if anything that happened that November night in 2012 was made public...until last week (about a year later). And nobody knows (at this point) if Winston was involved or not. His name does not appear on any search records. It does not appear that any search warrants period were issued in relation to the case. A case the District Attorney, Willie Meggs classified last week as "A Cluster".

Read the St. Pete Times story RIGHT HERE

Unlike many of our blogging brethren, we won't jump to any conclusions here. Though we will say, the whole mess does not make much sense. Why would Tallahassee police not investigate the claim/report? Why was it not made public until word somehow leaked out...nearly a year later? If Winston was a suspect, why was he not mentioned in the report or in the subsequent alleged investigation? And for that matter, why did Tallahassee police (a) allegedly threaten the victim and (b) not say anything about this until now?

There's also the matter of the victim describing her attacker as a 5-9 to 6-0 male, about 220-240 pounds. Winston is 6-4, 220.

The case is a bit of a distraction for the 10-0 Seminoles as they close in on a BCS berth. The team has 2 games remaining this season one against Idaho and the rivalry game with Florida, both are likely wins
. The question some Sports Writers have asked is "What happens if Winston is suspended?"

The answer is pretty simple, right or wrong, if charged, the discussion of his status may change, but considering how long it took for the allegations to actually emerge, does anyone think this will be resolved before the Seminoles season ends in 2 weeks?