Jameis Winston Files Lawsuit Against Woman Who Accused Him of Rape

Attorneys for the NFL’s first draft pick, Jameis Winston, filed a counterclaim against Erica Kinsman on Friday. Kinsman accused the former Florida State University quarterback of rape in December 2012. Her claims were poorly handled by both the Tallahassee police department and the university. Ultimately the state’s attorney declined to charge Winston and in December 2014 FSU’s conduct board cleared him of sexual assault charges.

In April, right before the NFL draft, Kinsman filed a lawsuit against Winston, accusing the Heisman-winning quarterback of sexual battery, assault and false imprisonment. She is seeking damages “in excess of $15,000.”

The counterclaim filed by Winston and his lawyers accuses Kinsman of “telling many different and inconsistent accounts of her sexual encounter.” The AP reports:

“Ms. Kinsman has been successful in one major area,” the filing said. “She has mounted a false and vicious media campaign to vilify Mr. Winston with the objective of getting him to pay her to go away. Ms. Kinsman is motivated by the most insidious objectives – greed,” it added.

The court filing said that after “the media circus she created” Kinsman’s lawyer had “initiated ‘settlement’ discussions” and that “in a later call Ms. Kinsman’s counsel demanded $7,000,000 from Mr. Winston.”

Friday’s filing by Winston’s attorneys said that the player’s contact with Kinsman was a “consensual sexual encounter” supported by medical evidence and two teammate witnesses.

For anyone who has followed the Winston case, the language in the filing comes as no surprise. Kinsman has been vocal about her experiences, she appeared in the documentary The Hunting Ground where she told her story for the first time.