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Jameis Winston

Judge denies Florida State's motion to dismiss Title IX lawsuit from Jameis Winston's accuser

Rachel Axon
USA TODAY Sports

A federal judge has denied a motion from Florida State to dismiss a Title IX lawsuit brought by Erica Kinsman, a former student who said quarterback Jameis Winston raped her in December 2012.

In his ruling issued Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Walker said he could not resolve the case on a motion to dismiss.

“In sum, FSU offers a different take on some of the facts in the complaint and additional facts that are not in the complaint in an attempt to show its efforts to respond were diligent and genuine, or at least not ‘clearly unreasonable’ under Title IX,” Walker wrote in his motion. “This Court does not resolve such factual disputes on a motion to dismiss.

“Viewed in the light most favorable to Ms. Kinsman, the complaint plausibly alleges deliberate indifference during this period that effectively denied her the ability to attend FSU.”

Kinsman first filed her case against the FSU Board of Trustees in January in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. It was transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, where Walker has scheduled a July 2016 trial.

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Kinsman argued that FSU was “deliberately indifferent” to her alleged rape and that continued harassment denied her of her educational opportunities under Title IX. She left FSU in November 2013 when the case became publicly known.

Walker found plausible Kinsman’s claims that FSU knew that she reported her allegation that Winston raped her and that the school’s response was clearly unreasonable and that were it not for FSU’s deliberate indifference, she would not have been subject to further discrimination.

FSU had argued that an “appropriate person” was not aware of the harassment and could not take corrective action.

The school had previously admitted that senior associate athletics director Monk Bonasorte and football coach Jimbo Fisher were aware of the allegation in January 2013, a month after Kinsman first reported to police, but did not notify the Title IX coordinator or the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities.

“It is plausible that the facts will show that one or both of these officials had enough authority over a member of the football team to take corrective action,” Walker wrote. “This Court cannot say now, as a matter of law, that these officials are not appropriate persons under Title IX.”

The school argued that Bonasorte and Fisher did not have “actual knowledge” that the alleged victim was an FSU student. Because Kinsman’s complaint alleged that they did have actual knowledge, “(t)aken together, the complaint plausibly alleges that an appropriate person had actual knowledge as of January 22, 2013.

FSU had refuted Kinsman’s claim that the school’s response was “clearly unreasonable,” saying that it immediately provided her a victim advocate who informed her of how to change a class in which she and Winston were both enrolled and of the student-disciplinary process and that it honored what FSU called her “informed decision” not to begin that process before she left school.

“Should the facts bear this out, there is some support for the general proposition that such a response might not be clearly unreasonable,” Walker wrote.
Kinsman’s complaint does not state that she declined a student-disciplinary process, and she said no one at FSU offered safety precautions. Walker concluded the complaint plausibly alleges deliberate indifference from January to November 2013.

FSU also claimed being on campus with Winston was not serious enough to be considered further discrimination, but Walker concluded from Kinsman’s complaint that it was “certainly plausible that this alleged harassment was severe and pervasive enough to deprive her of educational benefits.”

Kinsman has filed a separate lawsuit for Winston, who is now the rookie quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Winston was not charged criminally, and he was not found responsible of sexual misconduct after a FSU student disciplinary hearing in December.

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