Jameis Winston doesn’t make very good decisions. If you have been accused of rape in the past, you probably shouldn’t hang out with other people accused of rape.
Furthermore, he had to know that if he lied about how many people were in the UBER that lie might be exposed and that is what happened.
A friend of Jameis Winston’s who was with him the night the Buccaneers quarterback allegedly sexually abused an Uber driver says Winston left a party scene alone in the Uber car. That statement contradicts a third friend who has said publicly that Winston was never left alone with the driver.
Winston, former Vanderbilt football player Brandon Banks and Eagles cornerback Ronald Darby were at a Scottsdale, Arizona, nightclub in March 2016 when Winston became intoxicated and “unruly,” prompting his friends to send him away in an Uber, Banks’ attorney, Mark Scruggs, told Outside the Lines. “What happened after that,” Scruggs said, “they cannot say.” Banks has never been identified publicly as being at the scene until now.
Banks is serving 15 years in prison after being found guilty of aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery in June 2017 for his role in the gang rape of a female Vanderbilt student in June 2013.
Scruggs said any implication that Banks was the front-seat passenger is false.
“Brandon was never in the car with this victim,” Scruggs told Outside the Lines. He said Banks told him that the three men had taken an Uber together earlier in the evening with a different female driver before partying together. “They were two different events, two different Uber drivers,” Scruggs said.
Banks who is appealing his conviction doesn’t want the appearance that he sexually assaulted someone else and that essentially has been the story of Winston and his friend Eagles DB Ronald Darby.
This is not the first time Darby has vouched for Winston.
Darby’s statement vouching for Winston was the second time he had publicly come to the defense of his friend and former Florida State teammate. After Winston was accused of having sexually assaulted fellow student Erica Kinsman in December 2012 while at Florida State, Darby and fellow teammate Chris Casher provided criminal investigators with affidavits indicating that they saw Winston having consensual sex with Kinsman.
Winston is likely to be suspended by the NFL for three games.
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