FSU reported few rape cases to the U.S., official says

By Gary Fineout, Associated Press

Published Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2015 | 9:30 p.m.

Updated Thursday, Nov. 26, 2015 | 12:05 a.m.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida State University official who had been in charge of the office that counsels campus rape victims told lawyers suing the school that her office has handled 20 allegations of rape involving football players in the past nine years.

Melissa Ashton, who had been director of FSU's victim advocate program until August, made the statement in a deposition given this past summer in an ongoing civil lawsuit filed by former student Erica Kinsman against the university. Kinsman says the university failed to respond to her allegations that she was sexually assaulted by ex-Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston.

The Associated Press does not routinely identify people who say they are sexual assault victims. However, Kinsman told her story publicly in a documentary. She has also filed federal lawsuits against FSU and Winston.

Ashton, who was also assistant dean of students, said football players receive special treatment at the school, and that most of the estimated 20 rape victims she encountered during the past decade declined to press student conduct charges.

"The majority of survivors chose not to go through a process, a lot of times based on fear," Ashton said.

A spokeswoman for FSU said the university could not confirm or deny Ashton's figures because her "communication with victims is confidential." But Browning Brooks also said it may difficult to verify how many cases actually involve student athletes.

"Absent a student being willing to report outside of the confidential walls of the victim advocate program, the hands of the criminal justice system and the university's conduct code proceedings are tied," Brooks said in an email. "We cannot act on allegations of which we are unaware."

Ashton said that her office offered help to more than 100 victims of sexual battery during 2014. She was somewhat critical overall of how the university deals with student conduct cases, saying, for example, that the university does not have a practice of expelling students who violate student conduct rules.

Winston, who is now the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, denied Kinsman's allegation and was cleared of wrongdoing by FSU following a hearing late last year. A Florida prosecutor chose not to press criminal charges in late 2013, saying there were gaps in the accuser's story and there wasn't enough evidence to win a conviction.

The university, in response to a public records request, released depositions of both Ashton and FSU Coach Jimbo Fisher late Wednesday. FSU had tried to get a federal judge to block the release of all deposition transcripts related to the case; in late October the judge refused.

FSU still wound up redacting large parts from both depositions, contending they are education records exempt from Florida's public records law.

Fisher, for example, was questioned for roughly five-and-a-half hours in September. But the parts of his deposition that were released centered only on his knowledge of university policies regarding student conduct, including sexual assault. Fisher said that he did not know what the university policy was during 2012 and 2013.

Fisher did not make himself available to reporters following his weekly radio show.

FSU President John Thrasher recently objected to a documentary on CNN regarding sexual assault on college campuses that focused on the Winston case. He released a statement saying FSU "does not tolerate rape" and that the university has made changes to its policies regarding sexual assault complaints.