Florida State University To Pay Jameis Winston's Rape Accuser $950K Settlement

Florida State To Pay Jameis Winston’s Rape Accuser $950K Settlement

Florida State University has agreed to pay a $950,000 settlement to Erica Kinsman, the former student who accused Jameis Winston of rape in 2012.

Kinsman accused the school of being “deliberately indifferent” when she reported the alleged assault against her.

Via Fox News:

The settlement represents one of the largest payments from a school over such accusations. $250,000 will go to Erica Kinsman, with the rest going to her attorneys, FSU said.

The school also vowed to start new programs dedicated to identifying and preventing sexual assault.

“I am happy that FSU has committed to continue making changes in order to ensure a safer environment for all students,” Kinsman said in a statement.

“Although we regret we will never be able to tell our full story in court, it is apparent that a trial many months from now would have left FSU fighting over the past rather than looking toward its very bright future,” the university’s president John Thrasher responded.

Kinsman identified herself in The Hunting Ground, a 2015 documentary on college rape cases. The former student has said she was drunk at a Tallahassee bar in December 2012 when Winston and others took her to an apartment, where she says the quarterback raped her.

Both Kinsman and Winston have filed lawsuits against the other. Winston was never charged by police and was cleared by Florida State after a student code of conduct hearing. He maintains the sex was consensual.

He was selected No. 1 overall in the 2015 NFL draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

FSU had previously claimed an “appropriate person” was not initially aware of the accusations. Officials did say senior associate athletics director Monk Bonasorte and football coach Jimbo Fisher knew a month after it happened, but did not notify the Title IX coordinator or the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities.

A separate investigation by the Civil Rights office of the Department of Education is ongoing.

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