Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Ronald Darby has issued a statement defending Jameis Winston against an accusation of groping.
On Friday, the NFL confirmed it is investigating an allegation that the 23-year-old quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, grabbed a female Uber driver’s crotch last year in Arizona. The Uber driver, identified by Buzzfeed News only as Kate, said Winston “behaved poorly” from the start of the ride, including shouting homophobic slurs at pedestrians, before grabbing her crotch. She also said Winston was seated in the front seat of the vehicle as the lone passenger.
However, Darby released a statement on Sunday saying he was in the car with Winston at the time and he did not see any assault. “I felt the need to come forward and clarify some inaccurate accounts of the evening of 13 March 13 2016 when myself, a friend and Jameis Winston took an Uber ride in Arizona,” said Darby in the statement. “There were three of us in the car, not just one as has been reported. Myself and Jameis were in the backseat. I am confident that nothing inappropriate in nature happened in the car that evening and Jameis did not have any physical contact with the Uber driver. The accusations are just not true.”
On Friday, Winston said the “accusation is false”. Kate did not report the incident to the authorities but did report it to Uber the following day, according to the BuzzFeed account, and the passenger, now identified as Winston, was banned from the ride-hailing company for his behavior.
Later on Sunday, Kate’s attorney John Clune said Darby should give his phone to the NFL. “We have asked the NFL this morning to investigate Mr Darby and are demanding that he immediately turn his phone over to the NFL so the GPS history can be forensically examined,” said Clune.
Clune also defended his client’s story of events. “To be clear, no one else was in the car besides Mr Winston and if anyone is ‘confused,’ it isn’t the Uber driver. Mr Winston’s friend from his [his college] days is just making things worse by inserting himself into this.”
Darby has defended Winston before. The quarterback was the subject of a high-profile sexual assault complaint by another student during his time at Florida State. Winston was never charged over the 2012 incident, and Darby provided an affidavit saying that he had seen the quarterback having consensual sexual relations with the complainant.
Winston settled a lawsuit with the woman in December “to the satisfaction of the parties”. In January 2016, FSU agreed to pay $950,000 to settle the Title IX lawsuit filed by the woman against the university.
Winston, who this month became the second-youngest player in league history to eclipse 10,000 career passing yards, was tipped as a dark-horse Most Valuable Player candidate entering his third professional season, but has struggled with his efficiency and has been sidelines with a shoulder injury as the Buccaneers have slumped to a 3-6 record, good for last place in the NFC South.
