The request by Jameis Winston’s legal team to have his civil trial against alleged rape accuser Erica Kinsman relocated to Tallahassee was denied by a judge.
Here are the details from ESPN:
A lawsuit against Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston will not be moved from Orlando, Florida, to Tallahassee, Florida, as representatives for the first pick of the 2015 draft requested.
The ruling was made on Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Anne C. Conway in regards to the civil suit brought by Erica Kinsman, who accused Winston of rape in 2012 while the football player attended Florida State.
Winston was investigated by Tallahassee and Florida State police in the case, but he wasn’t charged with a crime.
Kinsman filed the lawsuit in state court in Orlando in April. According to court documents, she accused Winston of sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress arising out of forcible rape.
A resident of Alabama at the time, Winston sought a motion to transfer the case to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee.
Judge Conway ruled that because both parties lived in Central Florida there was no reason to move the case to Tallahassee. The judge also ruled it would be less convenient for witnesses to hold the civil trial in Tallahassee.
The decision to deny Winston this relocation shouldn’t surprise anyone considering that he and Kinsman are both currently residents in central Florida currently and the fact that there have been more than a few whispers with the way things were handled in Tallahassee to begin with.
I personally don’t think this denial of a relocation will become much of an issue going forward.