An attorney for an Uber driver who alleges that Jameis Winston groped her has asked the league to investigate Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Ronald Darby's defense of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback.
John Clune, who also represented a Florida State student who accused Winston of sexual assault in 2012, tweeted Sunday, "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."
Darby, who played with Winston at Florida State, released a statement Sunday saying he was in an Uber ride with Winston on March 13, 2016, and vowed that his college teammate did nothing inappropriate with the driver.
"I felt the need to come forward and clarify some inaccurate accounts of the evening of March 13, 2016 when myself, a friend and Jameis Winston took an Uber ride in Arizona," Darby said in his 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."
Clune disputed Darby's statement.
And to be clear, no one else was in the car besides Mr. Winston and if anyone is "confused", it isn't the Uber driver.
— John Clune (@CluneEsq) November 19, 2017
Mr. Winston's friend from his FSU days is just making things worse by inserting himself into this.
Her sole purpose is to put other women on notice of this unacceptable behavior as so many other women have recently done.
— John Clune (@CluneEsq) November 19, 2017
An attorney who specializes in sexual assault and Title IX cases, Clune previously represented an FSU student who alleged that Winston sexually assaulted her in December 2012.
On Friday, the NFL confirmed it was investigating the allegation by the Uber driver. The league's investigation was first reported Friday by BuzzFeed News, which viewed a letter it said that Lisa Friel, the NFL's special counsel for investigations, had sent to the Uber driver.
Winston has denied the allegations, saying in a statement Friday that the "accusation is false."
The driver, who declined to give her name, told BuzzFeed News she picked Winston up around 2 a.m. on March 13, 2016, in Scottsdale, Arizona. She told BuzzFeed that Winston asked her to stop at a drive-thru restaurant during the ride. While in line, the driver said, Winston reached over and "grabbed" her crotch for three to five seconds, removing his hand only when she said something.
The driver told BuzzFeed News that Winston was the only passenger in the car and said she reported the incident to Uber at the time.
Winston, in his statement Friday, said that "the driver was confused as to the number of passengers in the car and who was sitting next to her." Winston was in Arizona for Kurt Warner's annual Ultimate Football Experience event during that weekend.
A Scottsdale Police Department spokesperson told ESPN's Jenna Laine that the driver "did not call us or file a report with us." The Phoenix Police Department also confirmed to Laine that it was not contacted about an incident involving Winston and an Uber driver.
In 2012, Darby and former Seminoles defensive end Chris Casher said they were in Winston's off-campus apartment the night he was accused of sexually assaulting the Florida State student.
Darby and Casher provided authorities with affidavits indicating they saw Winston having consensual sex with the woman, but they later refused to testify at a student conduct code hearing regarding the allegations. Winston was never criminally charged by authorities in the incident, and he was cleared of violating FSU's student conduct code by a retired Florida state Supreme Court justice.
FSU officials reached a $950,000 settlement with the woman in January 2016 after she sued the university in federal court, and she and Winston reached an undisclosed settlement in December 2016.