Jameis Winston will find out Thursday afternoon whether he will be charged with a crime in the alleged rape of a fellow Florida State student.
SI.com reports indicate that Florida State Attorney General Willie Meggs has announced plans to reveal whether to charge the Heisman Trophy candidate at 2 p.m. ET on Thursday.
The female student alleged that Winston raped her on Dec. 7, 2012, while Winston's attorney is arguing that the sex was consensual. The alleged victim's family released a statement two weeks ago questioning the investigation, and the Tallahassee police department has been under fire for its handling of the case, which is almost a year old.
If Winston is charged with a felony, Florid State's code of conduct mandates that he immediately be suspended from the team until the case is resolved, according to USA TODAY Sport. Only a finding of "extraordinary circumstances" by the administration would allow his suspension to be delayed.
The 19-year-old accuser and her family have stated publicly that Tallahassee police originally tried to talk her out of pressing charges against Winston, warning her that her allegations would subject her to public scorn and ridicule.
The family has accused the Tallahassee Police Department of bungling the investigation through multiple lapses in the case, not collecting DNA samples in a timely fashion and rushing to place the case in the open-inactive category.
According to USA TODAY Sports, the accuser didn't identify Winston as her attacker until Jan. 10, 2013. Tallahassee police put the case on inactive status on Feb. 11, saying that the victim did not wish to press charges.
The victim's family disputes that account.
The case reopened some nine months later, after media requests were made of the initial police report. However, new evidence in the case was cited for removing it from inactive status and the timing of media requests were coincidental.
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