Jameis Winston: Brandon Banks, Now in Jail for Rape, Says Winston Took Another Uber Alone
By Jason Lisk
The Jameis Winston Uber story is re-surfacing, with news last week that Jameis Winston is expected to be suspended for three games for violating the personal conduct policy.
In another wild twist to the story, there was a third person with Jameis Winston and former Florida State teammate Ronald Darby on the night in question back in 2016. That was Brandon Banks, a former football player at Vanderbilt, who was convicted of aggravate rape and aggravated sexual battery in 2017, arising from the 2013 gang rape in a dorm.
According to Banks’ attorney, there were two different Uber rides on the night in question, and neither he nor Darby were in the second one.
Banks’ attorney, Mark Scruggs, said to the Tampa Bay Times on Friday night that Winston was in bad enough condition at that club (“unruly,” he told ESPN) that a second Uber was called to take him home, and he left in that car alone with another female driver.
“It appeared that Winston was trying to lay this on Brandon,” Scruggs said in his reason for stepping forward. “They were together that night. They took an Uber to a club, the three of them did, and Brandon said nothing whatsoever happened while the three of them were in the Uber. … For whatever reason, they felt they needed to put him, escort him into an Uber so he could go home on his own. There’s two different Uber rides is what we’re talking about.”
That contradicts, or clarifies, Ronald Darby’s claim that he and Jameis Winston were in the backseat of an Uber and another person rode in the front seat. According to Scruggs, the NFL never spoke to Banks, who insisted that his attorney be involved in any conversation.
An announcement of a suspension for Jameis Winston has not been made official, and while there were some claims that it would be based on his failure to report the incident (Uber removed his account shortly after the driver reported Winston), we do not at this time know exactly what findings the NFL will make about the allegations of a sexual assault.