Jameis Winston and Female Uber Driver Reach Settlement in Groping Case
If you’ve got a man with a dangerous reputation and multiple women in his past who have accused him of sexual misconduct loose in your community, chances are good that legal trouble is going to follow him wherever he goes.
But if the man in question is Jameis Winston, all it takes to get back in society’s good books is to pay hush money to a female Uber driver he allegedly groped, and then the problem simply goes away until the next time Winston can’t keep his hands to himself.
Such is the story according to an ESPN report analyzing court documents filed by attorney John Clune in federal court for the district of Arizona on Monday.
In those documents, “Kate P,” the Uber driver in question, accepted the settlement offered by Winston in lieu of going to civil court.
The incident occurred in March 2016. The victim said Winston entered her car and, while waiting in a drive-thru at Los Betos restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona, “leaned toward (her) and placed his fingers between her legs and pressed them firmly against her vagina over her yoga pants.”
“Kate P” then reacted angrily, according to the report, saying, “What’s up with that?” to Winston. She later called her boyfriend and said, “I just got semi-molested by the Tampa Bay Buc QB,” additionally asserting that she was “shaken up.”
The language used was overly kind. By the definition of nearly every jurisdiction in the U.S., Winston’s act, as described, is at minimum a gross misdemeanor and at most felony sexual assault. The driver did not file a criminal complaint.
In September, however, she filed a civil lawsuit seeking more than $75,000 for “damages in the nature of emotional distress and future therapy expenses.”
Winston’s cap hit for the Buccaneers this year is just shy of $8 million, which is $500,000 a game. By the time he’s earned $75,000, including salary, prorated signing bonus and roster bonus, there are still six minutes left in the first quarter.
Winston has denied that the incident occurred as alleged by the Uber driver.
However, the NFL did an investigation of its own and found that Winston “engaged in detrimental conduct” by “touching the driver in an inappropriate and sexual manner without her consent and that disciplinary action was necessary and appropriate.”
And while the three game checks Winston lost to his league-mandated suspension amounted to only $124,411 of his $580,588 base salary, that was indeed simply base salary.
The original lawsuit points out that Winston “has a history of sexually hostile behavior and appears to be no closer to understanding the impact of his conduct.”
He was accused of rape while a student at Florida State, but the star quarterback wasn’t arrested after criminal investigations by Tallahassee police and a state prosecutor.
The Uber driver has said that she is not seeking financial gain — damages for legitimate economic harm notwithstanding. Instead, it was Winston’s “complete lack of contrition” that encouraged her to come forward, she said.
The hush money payment is just another in Winston’s sordid history, as Florida State ended up out $950,000 in 2016 to Erica Kinsman, the woman who said Winston raped her while a student there.
The fact of the matter is that Winston has never been formally criminally charged with a sex crime, and neither he nor Florida State admitted to any wrongdoing in either of the settlements under discussion — assuming that Winston indeed is not required to do so in the still-pending final negotiations for settlement.
The bigger question might not be the $75,000 to “Kate P.” or the $950,000 to Kinsman, but the $20.9 million Winston is set to earn in 2019 — assuming Tampa Bay, facing yet more backlash from women’s groups for its handling of Winston’s career, doesn’t simply release the former No. 1 overall pick with the horrible reputation.
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