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Winston accuser responds to FSU's motion to dismiss Title IX lawsuit

Nov 30, 2013; Gainesville, FL, USA; Florida State flag is held up before the team runs through it against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. (Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)
Nov 30, 2013; Gainesville, FL, USA; Florida State flag is held up before the team runs through it against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. (Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)

In a response to Florida State’s motion to dismiss a federal Title IX lawsuit, the attorneys for Erica Kinsman, the former Florida State student who accused Jameis Winston of rape in December 2012, wrote that senior officials from the athletic department concealed information from university administrators.

According to USA Today, the response, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida on Thursday, “rebutted FSU’s assertion” that senior associate athletic director Monk Bonasorte and head coach Jimbo Fisher “were not appropriate people” to respond to the sexual assault allegation. The school has acknowledged that both Bonasorte and Fisher knew of the allegation in January 2013, a month after Kinsman reported it to police.

The response from Kinsman’s attorneys says that Bonasorte and Fisher not responding to the allegation was a “deliberate violation of their known duties to act on allegations of student-on-student sexual assault."

From USA Today:

"In deliberate violation of their known duties to act on allegations of student-on-student sexual assault and notify the FSU administration, these senior Athletics Department officials chose to conceal the information they had received," Kinsman's response states.

"It would wholly circumvent the purposes of Title IX to find FSU protected from liability because its senior associate athletic director and head football coach deliberately concealed notice from FSU's administrators or other 'appropriate persons.'"

The Title IX lawsuit was filed against the school’s Board of Trustees in January. It stated that the school did not properly investigate the allegation against Winston, who has never been charged and was subsequently cleared in a December 2014 school code of conduct hearing.

The lawsuit says that the school did not comply with Title IX policies and delayed its investigation into Winston, the 2013 Heisman Trophy winner. Winston, who is projected to be a top pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, has maintained that the two had consensual sex.

Florida State's motion to dismiss the suit stated that its response was "far from being deliberately indifferent" and "provided her the services of its confidential Victim Advocate Program within hours of her alleged sexual assault and continuously thereafter."

For more Florida State news, visit Warchant.com.

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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!