Jameis Winston Accuser’s Attorney Responds to Extortion Reports

The attorney of Jameis Winston’s accuser has responded to a TMZ report earlier today that claimed that the accuser’s former attorney, Patricia Carroll, attempted to extort Jameis Winston before going to the press.

In a statement given to the Orlando Sentinel, the accuser’s new Colorado based attorneys respond to claims made by Jameis Winston’s attorney, David Cornwell:

"“Mr. Cornwell appears to know that Mr. Winston is about to be charged by Florida State with sexual assault and this letter seems to be his final attempt to prevent FSU from complying with federal law.”“The facts that Mr. Cornwell chose not to disclose are that it was he himself who reached out to our client’s former counsel Patricia Carroll to discuss paying off our client,” said John Clune, a Title IX attorney representing the accuser. “Patricia Carroll didn’t’ even know who David Cornwell was until he called.  Mr. Cornwell then himself flew down from Atlanta to negotiate with Ms. Carroll.”"

The full statement can be read below.

Obviously, this does not gel with the narrative set forth by Jameis Winston’s attorney in the letter obtained by TMZ. But that’s not at all surprising. Clune also called Cornwell’s letter “self-serving.” A remark, that like many things pertaining to this entire situation, lacked a great degree of self awareness– it was essentially the pot calling the kettle black.

The accuser’s former attorney, Carroll, plans to release a statement tomorrow.

Florida State, through Rob Wilson, the associate director of athletics for communications at FSU, declined comment:

"“Speaking for athletics we cannot comment and I don’t believe University Administration could comment either.”"

And on the ACC Coaches Teleconference, FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher said he was aware of the initial TMZ report but wasn’t focusing on it, instead telling reporters that his primary focus was NC State.

This whole things continues to become more and more confusing, with each legal team giving conflicting statements. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle, but don’t think that the end of this will be when FSU concludes its own investigation. This is destined to spill over into civil court and will likely follow Winston around for years.

That’s an aspect of this situation that Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk thinks will have wide-felt ramifications at the NFL level too.

Here is the full statement from John Clune:

"Atlanta NFL lawyer, David Cornwell, has apparently leaked to TMZ a self-serving letter to Florida State University that is full of dishonest and distorted statements at a time when Mr. Winston is suffering from the negative attention of his own continuing misconduct of last week. Mr. Cornwell appears to know that Mr. Winston is about to be charged by Florida State with sexual assault and this letter seems to be his final attempt to prevent FSU from complying with federal law.The facts that Mr. Cornwell chose not to disclose are that it was he himself who reached out to our client’s former counsel Patricia Carroll to discuss paying off our client. Patricia Carroll didn’t’ even know who David Cornwell was until he called. Mr. Cornwell then himself flew down from Atlanta to negotiate with Ms. Carroll.Settlement discussions were immediately unproductive as Cornwell was crude and insulting going so far as to say “your client likes to f!#% football players.” When told that the client’s main concern was not money but that Winston be held accountable for his actions, Cornwell threatened to sue our client and her parents for civil racketeering in an effort to intimidate them into staying quiet. After learning about Mr. Cornwell’s unprofessional conduct at that meeting from Ms. Carroll, our office has decidedly not engaged with Mr. Cornwell at all or anyone else on Mr. Winston’s behalf. Although it our understanding that settlement was discussed, no authorized demands were made of Mr. Winston.Mr. Cornwell additionally and inaccurately portrays that our client chose to file a complaint “two years later”. The truth is that the University approached our client in October of 2013 and asked her for the first time whether she would cooperate with disciplinary charges against Mr. Winston after the school received a second report of sexual misconduct by another woman. Our client responded that she would certainly cooperate. Since that time our client through counsel has repeatedly agreed to cooperate and meet with the University. All of these communications, including the October 2013 discussion with FSU officials, is documented. Mr. Cornwell may wish the truth were otherwise but FSU’s own records proves him false.To the extent that Mr. Cornwell references statements about Mr. Winston’s race, we would doubt that Ms. Carroll made such remarks. The suggested remarks are certainly not beliefs held by our client and she would never authorize anyone to say such things."