Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher says Jameis Winston is innocent and will keep playing

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Coach Jimbo Fisher said Florida State’s Jameis Winston has committed no crime and is adamant the quarterback will not miss any games this season due to an ongoing sexual assault investigation.

Fisher said Monday recent reports about the investigation haven’t revealed any new facts.

“This country is based off being innocent until proven guilty, not guilty till you’re proven innocent,” Fisher said. “There is no victim because there was no crime. We’re convicting a guy over things that are not true, based on evidence.

“There’s facts of the case and what the reports are. Public opinion wants to do what they do. They don’t get what they want. … We believe in him, 100 percent.”

Florida State announced last week it will use an independent official in the student code of conduct hearing. No hearing date has been set.

Fisher said he wasn’t concerned with the details of the hearing.

“Get it and get it over with,” Fisher said.

A female student said Winston sexually assaulted her in December 2012. Florida State Attorney Willie Meggs declined to press charges against Winston last December due to inconsistencies and flaws in the evidence.

Florida State said the only people aware of the incident before January 2013 were Tallahassee police, campus police and the Victims Advocate Program. The program is not required to share information with school officials as a way to help victims. The athletics department decided not to file a report with the university’s Title IX administrator after Winston’s lawyer said the Tallahassee Police Department was “no longer pursuing the case” and Winston and his roommates said the sex was consensual.

The university said its Title IX officials didn’t become aware of the incident until November 2013, when contacted at that time by the Tallahassee Police Department.