Ladies and Gentlemen –
I don’t know about you…
But I don’t like listening to any “he said she said” when it comes to any situation
I am a “fact” guy, always have been…..
I know that sometimes appears difficult in this election year to discern fact from fiction
But I’m not here to discuss politics; this is about a cloud hanging over college football
Before we get into the subject at hand I want to give you a brief scenario
“Three young men walk into a convenience store and attempt to rob the clerk behind the store counter; in the ensuing events the clerk behind the counter is shot by one of the three men. The three men fled on foot from the store and were subsequently captured by police the following day, but without the weapon in any of their possessions.
When the police captured the three men, the investigators asked one of the three suspects “What happened to the weapon?” The man said “I threw it in the river, after I talked to an attorney but before you cops picked us all up”
My question is this (It’s easy, you know this one, so relax)
“Is throwing the weapon away, in the above statement, a willful act of destruction of evidence while committing a felony?”
Of course it is and those three individuals can be held (for a while) based on that one statement, right?
Of course they can…
Now let’s talk about a specific charge that continues to swirl around Tallahassee and the Florida State Seminole Football Program, the NCAA and the world of college football.
Rape, or if you prefer “sexual assault”
That too is a felony
When I was a kid that was a capital offense and you could ride the electric chair for committing such a crime. Why? Because it’s a heinous act of violence and you steal a woman’s dignity and life, that’s why.
I still support that being a capital crime
But although it’s no longer a capital offense, it is however still a felony.
Much like you I have heard over (and over again) the head Football Coach of Florida State say “I know the facts”, the attorney representing the Quarterback say’s “I know the facts” and the Quarterback himself say “I know the facts” of the alleged sexual assault that took place in December of 2012.
In case you were wondering why I mentioned the date of the alleged incident of December 2012….
That was before anyone knew who Jameis Winston was….or before he became famous
The young woman didn’t identify him until January of 2013, in class….
Again…….before he became famous
Now I am not going to rehash anything that you may or may not have already read here.
I am not going to condemn nor condone anyone’s actions in this article.
I want to talk about a couple of “facts” that nobody wants to talk about
Not the Tampa Tribune
Not the New York Times
Not ESPN
Not USA Today
Not Florida State University
Not the Tallahassee Police Department
And….
Not the District Attorney of Leon County or the Attorney General of the State of Florida
Intrigued? Read on…..
In every investigation there is always (always) at least one key piece of evidence
Evidence that can either convict or prove the innocence of a suspect or suspects
Are you with me so far?
What is the key piece of evidence in the Jameis Winston case?
At least one of his Seminole football teammates admitted to using their cell phone to video tape the alleged sexual assault between Winston and the young woman.
That is a “fact”, are you with me so far?
The Seminole football player, stated “on the advice from his attorney he deleted the video from his cell phone of the event”
Those are facts as they have been presented to us, the public
But here is what you haven’t read or heard or maybe even thought about
Why hasn’t anyone in law enforcement subpoenaed the cell phone records of those who admitted that they videoed and or witnessed the alleged assault?
Did they forward the video to anyone?
(You know they did…)
Who did they call or text during this alleged assault?
The fact is, no one and I mean no one in Law Enforcement has stated that they performed this very simple act of Investigation 101 to determine the validity of the crimes for which Winston is alleged to have committed.
I know some of you may have raised eyebrows and may be getting angry but just wait…
We have been told the video of the alleged assault was “deleted” right?
But the “fact” is, as many celebrities have discovered recently, nothing is deleted from your cell phone or messages, video, pictures etc, that you send into the great cloud in the sky.
That too is a fact
So why do I mention this, because that video of the alleged assault is out there
It may still be on someone’s cell phone, but it certainly is still in the cloud in the sky.
So why haven’t the investigators mentioned this?
Are we to believe that they didn’t think of it?
They didn’t “think” of that one crucial piece of evidence that would certainly exonerate Jameis Winston and restore the integrity and dignity of Florida State University and the law enforcement agencies in question, really?
Think about it for a moment….
One single piece of evidence would restore the integrity of a Heisman Trophy winner, a Collegiate National Football Champion, a great University’s reputation, a State’s Attorney General and local law enforcement and prosecutor’s reputation and dedication to service.
Instead we are supposed to take the word of the suspect in this alleged sexual assault and an individual that admits (on the advice of his attorney) that he “destroyed evidence” in a suspected felony that “nothing happened, it was all consensual”
Gosh that sounds a lot like my example in that earlier “robbery” scenario doesn’t it?
You know, destroying evidence while “potentially committing a felony”
I’m sure that video doesn’t condemn Winston or his cohorts or the attorney wouldn’t have had him destroy the video evidence of the “alleged incident”, right?
Are you with me here yet?
So we are just to take this witness’s and the alleged perpetrator’s word for it, really?
So let me get this straight….
So hackers can get celebrities naked pictures from the “cellular clouds” from three years or more ago but the best and brightest minds in ALL of law enforcement in the state of Florida can’t retrieve one single cellular video, really?
Or won’t…..
I prefer the facts
So let’s talk about this for a brief moment
Why has this “ONE” and only piece of evidence in this alleged sexual assault that would exonerate Winston never (ever) been mentioned by any of the “powers to be” in the great state of Florida or at the very least been mentioned that they had made an effort to retrieve it, find it etc.
Wouldn’t that at least sound good at this point?
Think of that…They “found” the information…..the video
Because that would be too easy wouldn’t it?
Local Florida Law Enforcement officials along with the District Attorney and the Attorney General of the State could all stand on the podium grinning from ear to ear and say….
“We have seen the video of the alleged assault and have concluded that the young woman was a willing participant, engaging in a consensual act, therefore the case is being dropped.”
Wouldn’t that be easy? Wouldn’t that wrap it up for everyone?
But we haven’t seen that have we, because law enforcement, nor the prosecutors in this case have ever mentioned seeing the video or subpoenaing any cell phone records.
But then again………
Maybe they have
You see, I refuse to believe that all these “smart” people with advanced degrees haven’t thought of this before now. Maybe one or two might have missed it, but all of them?
I believe they have seen the video and they know the “facts”
That’s exactly why nobody wants to talk about it
It’s easier to muddy the water with conjecture and rumors and a lot of “he said and she said” than to deal with the facts of the case.
The fact is that the video will prove the guilt or innocence of Jameis Winston
So nobody in law enforcement or a prosecutor’s office ever saw the video, really?
And where are all the feminist groups that blasted the NFL over the Ray Rice incident?
Why aren’t they asking questions and raising hell over this?
Am I supposed to believe that it’s ok to rape a woman but not beat her up?
You feminist need to clarify your position, you’re confusing me
The NFL was getting beaten up every night on the cable news networks over their handling of the Ray Rice case and the Commissioner of the League almost lost his job over it.
What have they said on the subject of an alleged sexual assault by a high profile college football player and the fumbling bumbling of the case by law enforcement and prosecutors alike?
Nothing
So where is the NCAA in all this?
Crickets……
Really?
So the University of Georgia’s “autographed” memorabilia of a student athlete is more important than the rape of a female student or the integrity of an institution or a sport?
No, wait, Jameis Winston was involved in that “autographed” memorabilia too right?
Good thing he said he didn’t take any money; or his integrity might be questioned…
It’s been my experience in life that the guilty don’t like to deal in facts
But I will let you make your own mind up here
RTR
THE CFB WIZARD