It took two months for this to get settled — wait, that’s a bad choice of words because settling usually implies that money changed hands.
Miami-Dade PO Ed Griffith makes clear to me on Kaep & others: “The case was not dropped. There was never a case. It was an investigation.”
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 12, 2014
It sounds like the woman at the center of this case investigation was either extremely intoxicated, possesses some personality eccentricities, or both.
Key point of Miami closeout memo: Police arrived to find woman naked & writhing in bed as if having sex — except no one was there but her.
— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) June 12, 2014
This isn’t altogether surprising, since Colin Kaepernick was signed to a multiyear extension last week. The 49ers were confident that Kaepernick wouldn’t face any consequences for whatever happened at the Viceroy, otherwise they wouldn’t have given him a signing bonus.
I got a little grief back in April after daring to question TMZ’s credibility in regards to this particular situation. I’m not going to go back and drop an I-told-you-so on everyone who sent tweets to me that said some form of, “I don’t know, dude. TMZ is generally pretty spot-on.” But TMZ deserves to get raked over the proverbial coals here, just like they did with Kaepernick (and, to a lesser extent, Quinton Patton and Ricardo Lockette).
Here’s what they “reported” back in April:
Kaepernick was not specific about what portion of our story he disputes.
As we reported, a law enforcement source at the Miami PD told us Kaepernick is a suspect in a sexual assault case.
The Miami PD also told USA Today he was a suspect in a sexual assault case — but then backtracked and said it was for a “suspicious incident.”
Even their response to today’s news was written in a questionable way.
Colin Kaepernick will NOT be hit with any charges stemming from a sexual assault investigation in Miami, authorities say.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has announced … after a thorough investigation, the San Francisco 49ers QB is essentially off the hook after a woman named him a suspect in an incident that took place on April 2nd.
Uh, he’s not “essentially off the hook.” He’s completely off the hook. He was never on the hook to begin with (nor were Patton or Lockette, who weren’t mentioned by name in TMZ’s latest story), because no charges were ever filed.
Here’s the headline: Colin Kaepernick NO CHARGES TO BE FILED In Sexual Assault Case
Uh, there was no sexual assault and no case.
The lesson: if TMZ reports something that sounds crazy, wait for whatever they say to get confirmed by multiple sources before believing it.
