Should Tallahassee Police Get a National Title Ring?

I mean, this is unbelievable.  

“Why that was done (fail to review the text messages), I don’t really know the answer to that,” said former prosecutor, Adam Ruiz. “To me, that’s a no-brainer.”

Can you imagine if Casher, Winston's roommate and teammate, was on the witness stand under oath and had to explain how and why he deleted the video?

His testimony would be destroyed. 

If the Tallahassee police had done their job, they'd have recovered this video and had actual evidence of the alleged victim and Winston. They could watch the video and decide for themselves whether this was a question of fact for a jury. Then, if charges were filed, the jury could review the tape. If no charges were ever filed, then there would be clear evidence that no crime was committed. This ends entirely the he said, she said nature of the case. 

It's unfathomable that it took nearly a year for investigators to discover that there had ever been a video.

Plus, how often do exculpatory videos get deleted? Doesn't seem to happen very often.  

2. The lead detective did nothing for months upon the complaint being filed.

Amazingly, he didn't request video footage from the thirty bar security cameras from that night. Despite being told that the alleged victim had ridden in a car with a Florida State football player named Chris, who used his student ID to get a discount on the cab fare, he did not take thirty seconds to do a Google search on the Florida State football team and identify this player. 

I'm not exactly Columbo, but there's one football player on FSU's roster named Chris.

Bingo, you're ready to proceed with questioning. 

This infuriated the prosecutor in the case, Willie Meggs. He told the Times,. “How long does it take to identify a freshman football player — about 10, 15, 16 seconds? Anybody that looked at this case would say you get a report at 2 in the morning, by noon you could have had the defendant identified and talked to.”

Meggs continued, “I am convinced that we would have identified the cabdriver that night and had an interview with him. Don’t know what we would have learned, but we would have learned the truth. I am also convinced that had it been done properly, we would have had the video from Potbelly’s (the bar).”

Having done nothing to confirm anything she'd told police, the detective in charge of the case decided that the victim, contrary to her assertions otherwise, had no interest in prosecuting the case. 

3. Winston wasn't asked for his DNA and was initially contacted via cell phone about the crime.

Why wasn't Winston asked for his DNA?

Because it might get too much publicity. 

Seriously, that's the reason the Tallahassee police gave for not determining whether or not Jameis Winston might have committed sexual assault. 

Too much publicity!

When the police department finally got around to contacting Winston -- after he was identified by the alleged victim -- they did so via a phone call. Winston answered the call and said he had to go to baseball practice and would talk with investigators later. Of course, Winston never talked with investigators, instead he hired an attorney and refused to cooperate any further with the investigation.

This set Meggs off: “It’s insane to call a suspect on the phone. First off, you don’t know who you are talking to.” He said he would have gone straight to the baseball field. “If you walked up to Jameis Winston in the middle of baseball practice and said, ‘Come here, son, I need to talk to you,’ he would have said, ‘Yes, sir.’”

Mr. Meggs added: “He’s not in custody, you don’t have to read him his rights. He might have said, ‘I didn’t have sex that night.’”

Of course no one knows what Winston would have said, since he still hasn't said anything at all.

4. The Florida State athletic department knew of this investigation back in January. 

Did the larger university know as well?

If not, why not, after all, you think the football team might have a duty to disclose that a student athlete was being investigated for rape.

It's probably time for a full-scale investigation of the Florida State athletic department to accompany the full-scale investigation of the university at large. 

...

Ultimately, when you read the Times report and consider all the evidence laid out here, there are really only two possibilties: a. either the Tallahassee police department is incredibly incompetent and run by idiots or b. the Tallahassee police helped to cover up a sexual assault to protect a star football player. 

Well, I guess that's not entirely accurate. 

Both could be true. 

Either way I think the Tallahassee police department deserve at least one national title ring. 

It's only fair. 

Other than Jameis Winston, they were Florida State's most valuable player.