Report: Accused FSU athletes avoid charges frequently
Athletes at Florida’s two most prominent state schools have a tendency to avoid charges when accused of criminal activity.
According to an extensive ESPN Outside the Lines report, Florida State athletes ultimately escape charges 70 percent of time when named as suspects in police reports. At Florida, charges didn’t happen or were dropped 56 percent of the time. Those percentages are higher than the average rate of no prosecution from 2009-2014, the timeframe examined in the report.
From Outside the Lines:
But available reports showed that Rainey’s alma mater, Florida, had the most athletes — 80 — named as suspects in more than 100 crimes at Florida. Yet the athletes either never faced charges, had charges against them dropped or were not prosecuted 56 percent of the time. When Outside the Lines examined a comparison set of cases involving college-age males in Gainesville, 28 percent of the crimes ended either without a record of charges being filed or by charges eventually being dropped.
Florida State had the second-highest number of athletes named in criminal allegations: 66 men’s basketball and football athletes. In 70 percent of those incidents, the athletes either never faced charges, had charges against them dropped or were not prosecuted. By comparison, cases ended up without being prosecuted 50 percent of the time among a sample of crimes involving college-age males in Tallahassee.
Florida State’s high rate of athletes not being prosecuted shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. The process of the Tallahassee Police Department came under intense scrutiny throughout the past two years as former quarterback Jameis Winston was accused of sexual assault. Winston was not charged in the case after a Florida state proseuctor cited a lack of evidence. That same prosecutor also harshly criticized the handling of the case by the TPD.
The OTL report examined the rate of charges against athletes at 10 schools: Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Michigan State, Missouri, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Texas A&M and Wisconsin. You can read it in its entirety here and it’s worth the time, even if you’re one of many who realize favorable treatment to athletes is nothing surprising.
According to the report, Florida State associate athletic director Monk Bonasorte is named in many police reports involving athletes.
A former Florida State athletic department employee told Outside the Lines that Bonasorte’s routine involvement in criminal cases troubled some colleagues because of the administrator’s own record; Bonasorte, a former Florida State football standout, pleaded guilty in 1987 for cocaine distribution and served six months in prison. Bonasorte, through a university spokeswoman, declined a request for an interview.
“He is kind of the fixer for football,” the former staff member said. “He knows where the skeletons are buried, but he also helps keep those football players, not out of trouble, but out of paying for the trouble they’ve gotten into.”
The report also uncovered the police report from a 2012 incident involving former Missouri wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham, the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2012.
Green-Beckham was dismissed from Missouri in April 2014 after he allegedly pushed a woman down stairs after attempting to force his way into her apartment. The woman said she didn’t want to press charges for fear of public backlash.
In the November 2012 incident, Green-Beckham was accused of pushing a woman into a doorframe. The woman had allegedly confronted him about cheating on her friend, his girlfriend at the time. According to the police report, the woman said witnesses would lie to protect Green-Beckham. She was referred to as the aggressor by witnesses.
According to OTL, she reached out to police in 2014.
About 18 months after reporting the incident, the woman emailed with police, whether her initial report was a public record that anyone could access. She told police that she was interested in speaking out about what happened in 2012, “but that she changed her mind after hearing about some of the negative attention other people involved with Green-Beckham were getting.”
Green-Beckham spent the 2014 season practicing with Oklahoma after transferring there. He declared for the NFL draft and was drafted in the second round by the Tennessee Titans.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
