The alleged victim in a sexual battery investigation involving Florida State phenom Jameis Winston was told by a Tallahassee detective her life could “be made miserable” if she followed through with the case, according to an explosive statement released by the woman’s family on Wednesday.
The statement  says detective Scott Angulo told the accuser’s attorney that Tallahassee is a “big football town” and the client needed to “think long and hard before proceeding against [Winston] because she will be raked over the coals” if she pursued a case against the star quarterback.
The alleged victim’s family made the allegations in a statement released through the family’s attorney to the Tampa Bay Times. It was the first public comments from the alleged victim or her family since the allegations surfaced last week of an incident occurring in December 2012. On Tuesday, the Tallahassee Democrat reported a city manager sent an email to local officials saying the investigation halted when the complainant decided not to press charges.
“In early January, when the victim identified the perpetrator as Jameis Winston, the family grew concerned that she would be targeted on campus,” the family’s statement reads.
The statement also claims detectives “specifically refused to collect Winston’s DNA or interview Winston’s roommate who witnessed the attack,” because doing so would have alerted Winston and allowed the case to go public. The family says that they are not responsible for the information having gone public last week.
“It was never the intent of the victim or the family for this to become public,” the statement said. “The victim was trying to move on with her life, which has now been turned upside down once again.”
The family of the woman — a Florida State student from the Tampa area — was also shocked to learn that Winston’s attorney was aware of the case and was told it had been closed in February, though Winston had not been interviewed and no DNA or blood samples were collected.
The statement closes with six questions from the family that they want answered, including:
— Why was Winston not listed as the suspect in the police report when he was identified in early January?
— Why didn’t Detective Angulo or his superiors inform the State Attorney of the crime before the media sought a copy of the police report 11 months later?
— Why was the Florida State University Police Department given a copy of the police report after it was determined it did not have jurisdiction, especially given the fact that Winston’s attorney represents the Florida State University football team and the campus police have a clear conflict of interest?
Winston’s attorney has publicly denied the allegations, and the quarterback has not yet been questioned by police, arrested or charged with a crime. Winston, a front-runner for the Heisman Trophy, is scheduled to start on Saturday for the No. 2 Seminoles against Idaho.