DNA analysis completed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed DNA provided by Jameis Winston matched the sample taken from the underwear of the woman accusing the Florida State quarterback of sexual battery, ESPN reported Wednesday night.
According to the report, the Florida state crime lab has determined the chances of the DNA in the woman’s underwear matching someone besides Winston was one in 2.2 trillion.
Police gathered a sexual assault kit Dec. 7, 2012, when the accusation was reported of the alleged incident at an off-campus apartment. Winston’s DNA was recently obtained by authorities.
The DNA match doesn’t prove that Winston, a Heisman trophy candidate who has led second-ranked Florida State to 10-0 record, assaulted the woman. It does, however, show that Winston and the accuser’s DNA were associated on the night in question.
On Thursday, Winston’s attorney Tim Jansen said the quarterback volunteered a DNA sample last week to the Tallahassee Police Department and he is upset the information was leaked to the media.
“This DNA has no impact whatsoever on this case,” Jansen said at a press conference. “The two eyewitnesses that were present will exonerate [Winston].”
William Meggs, the state attorney for the 2nd Judicial Court, said on Wednesday his office is still investigating the case. It was referred to his office by Tallahassee police last week.
“Everybody wants to know what’s going on,” Meggs said earlier Wednesday. “So do we. We’re in the process of trying to figure out what’s going on. We haven’t determined how it’s going to turn out.”
Meggs said he is “pretty confident” his office still could adequately investigate the case nearly a year after the crime allegedly occurred.
This news comes on the heels of the alleged victim — a Florida State student from the Tampa area — being 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, released through the family’s attorney to the Tampa Bay Times, 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.
“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 they are not responsible for the information having gone public last week.
Wednesday night, meanwhile, Tallahassee interim police chief Tom Coe said the accuser stopped cooperating with police in February. Coe contends Tallahassee police made the case inactive only after the accuser stopped communicating with them.
It was the first public comments from the alleged victim or her family since the allegations surfaced last week. 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.