While I am not condoning violating the law as SI (hope I got that right) reported once law enforcement is involved the schools investigation may be delayed until law enforcement completes its investigation.  In any case FSU's delay of months pales when compared to say Penn State delaying its investigation by a decade.  If the feds were not strict with that delay I doubt they will come down hard on FSU.  I am not sure who would file a civil suit, who would you think that would be.

The case was not closed it was put on inactive status.  The TPD claims this was because the girl was not cooperating after it was pointed out her statements were not credible.  The DNA match did not come until last week when Winston provided a sample.

The case was not reopened by the SAO.  While there may be some holes this is my understanding.  A reporter from the Tampa Times made a FOI request to the TPD using a specific incident number (the next day TMZ made the same request, followed by lots of other media outlets).  The girl's lawyer would know the incident number, as well as TPD employees but no one else.  The reporter has been linked to the girl's aunt's lover Patricia Carroll who is the lawyer representing the girl, and speculation is Carroll provided the Tampa Times reporter with the incident number.  Once TPD got the FOI request the case was moved from inactive to active status and sent to the SAO.  As lots of sources have reported it is common for LEOs to tell a vic it will be tough to file a he said she said sex assault claim.  Nothing to see there move along.  Part of the reason for this warning was because they did not deem the vic's statements as credible.

There is not agreement on what the vic did or did not do.  TPD claims she was not cooperating with them while her lawyer disputes this.  Her lawyer was making demands in terms of blood tests that are not normally made.  This relates to the vic's possibly being drugged or drunk.  In general TPD takes a hard line with FSU students and an even harder line with FSU athletes.  My best guess was the lawyer (who is a PI lawyer) was not experienced in criminal law and a pain in the buttissmoo.  What ever the case the TPD and the lawyer are disputing each others claims.  To make matters worse the vic may have some mental or emotional issues.

Winston never made any statement.  His lawyer has and has never said Winston did not have sex with the girl.  In fact in Jan/Feb (time line is not clear) when Jansen (the FSU football team lawyer) was contacted by TPD he provided statements to TPD from the vic's roommate and the roommate's boyfriend (a FSU football palyer) claiming they were present the night the vic claimed assault and it was consensual.  As an aside TPD knew if they contacted Winston directly he (and any other FSU football player) would have told the LEOs to contact the lawyer.

At this point Jan/Feb (unclear timeline) TPD was faced with a vic who first provided a description of a perp that did not match Winston and then recanted and IDed Winston.  Winston's lawyer then provided statements that the vic knew Winston and there were pix of her with Winston before and after the alleged assault.  When confronted with the possibility that she might have known Winston before claiming assault and her initial report was inconsistent she stopped cooperating, or perhaps agreed to drop the charges sans legal advice.  This is when the case was  deemed inactive.  The girl was the one who changed her story, not Winston.  Winston also has an experienced legal team, especially in criminal law while the vic has a friend of the family PI lawyer who seems to be in over her head.

True I don't know what will happen.  But I do know that, as you point, there is not much other than the vic's calim to support charging.  The defense can point to the vic's roommate and her boyfriend disputing the charge.  Combined with the probability that at least one FSU football fan will be on the jury and hang it at best I doubt a guilty verdict is likely.

Meggs is a wild card.  He charged Travis Johonson (first round draft choice who played six years in the NFL) with rape on very thin evidence and an all female jury voted not guilty in less than 30 minutes.  Meggs is use to community pressure.  He is currently trying to prohibit sales of alcohol in Leon county because people get drunk at FSU football games.  I submit this will make not just FSU football fans mad, but every beer drinker in the county as well, even if they are UF football fans like BTD.

Meggs is not running for reelection.

From what I know this girl, and several other girls in her sorority, were playing a game of chasing FSU football players and boasting about it on the internet.  If the statements from her roommate and roommate's boyfriend (more accurately ex-roommate) she became upset when Winston had sex with her and then told her that his real girlfriend was flying in for the weekend and she should lay low for awhile.