Apr 16, 2014 10:12 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Whether Jameis Winston is guilty or innocent of rape may one day be determined, but until then, the New York Times has determined the police let the accuser down.

In a new investigative piece, the NYT examines the case piece by piece, including an unrelated rape report that the Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) mishandled. The story focuses on the large lapses of time between police action and the several flaws in the investigation.

Whether Florida State University and the TPD intentionally conducted a poor investigation has yet to be determined. FSU is under federal investigation from the U.S. Education Department's Office of Civil Rights (OCR), as are many schools in the nation, for mishandling a report of sexual assault. The TPD is named in a lawsuit filed from Winston's accuser, a suit she has also named the Florida State quarterback in.

Here are the top 5 excerpts from the NYT's piece on the investigation of Winston's accuser's rape claim. CLICK HERE to read the piece in full.

1.     "Purgatory at Potbelly's"

In this section, the piece identified a bar called Potbelly's as the place where the accuser says she first encountered her assailant. The bar is a popular student hangout spot and they have a Thursday promotion where customers can drink all they want from 9 p.m. to midnight for just $10. Potbelly's has 30 security cameras and the victim remembers feeling light headed and fuzzy after the last drink she had that night.

"Officer Angulo had three solid leads to identify the suspect: the name Chris, the bar's security cameras and the cab where a student identification card had been used.

"What the investigator did next - or did not do - would later confound prosecutors and muddied the outcome of the case."

2.     "An Inquiry Begins, and Ends"

This section examines TPD Special Victims Detective Scott Angulo's investigation, or lack thereof.

"Officer Angulo's investigation apparently stirred no concern within his department. His superior officer signed off on his work, records show.

"In the weeks that followed, not knowing the investigation had been suspended, Ms. Carroll called the police periodically to see if lab tests had come back. Sometimes, her calls were returned, she said, but not always."

Patricia Carroll, the accuser's attorney requested Angulo take Winston's DNA and he decided not to. A year after the accuser's initial 911 call, Winston's DNA was taken and found to be a match to semen on her underwear from the night of the assault.

3.     "A Deputy's Daughter"

This was the unrelated sexual assault that the piece details to show the TPD had previously not adjudicated a sexual assault involving a student at FSU.

"In his complaint to the police, the father wrote that Officer Pate had suggested that an investigation 'would be futile, as 'this kind of stuff happens all the time here.'' The family also said the police had focused more on the accuser than on the accused."

4.     "The News Breaks"

Just before the news broke that Winston was implicated in a rape investigation, his case was handed to a state prosecutor. William Meggs decided against charging Winston with rape due to lack of evidence.

"In the recent interview, Mr. Meggs said he was surprised that the police had not quickly found Mr. Casher. 'How long does it take to identify a freshman football player - about 10, 15, 16 seconds?' he asked, adding, 'Anybody that looked at this case would say you get a report at 2 in the morning, by noon you could have had the defendant identified and talked to.'"

5.     "The University's Role"

Even though the alleged rape happened off campus, FSU has a responsibility under the Title IX gender equity law to investigate crimes of sexual discrimination.

"It was not just the Winston case that was causing concern on campus. In January, the mother of a student who said she had been sexually battered at a fraternity the previous April contacted the campus police asking why the university "doesn't do more to protect women from rape," records show. The police response was to inform the mother of a self-defense class for students."

See Now: Covert Team Inside Newsweek Revealed as Key Players in False Human Trafficking Lawsuit