After just three hours of deliberations Tuesday afternoon, a jury found two former Vanderbilt University football players guilty of raping a 21-year-old student in an on-campus dormitory in 2013. Corey Batey, a 21-year-old former wide receiver, was found guilty on seven total charges, while tight end Brandon Vandenburg, also 21, was found guilty on nine.
Both players were dismissed from Vanderbilt’s football team following the charges, which stemmed from an on-campus incident in which a 21-year-old Vanderbilt student was assaulted in an on-campus dorm. According to police reports, the woman was taken to Vandenburg’s room after a night of drinking at a local Nashville bar, with Batey and two other players, Brandon Banks and Jaborian McKenzie, present. The Tennessean described what happened there in a timeline of the case’s events:
Multiple sexual assaults occur over the course of 30 minutes, police say, and Vandenburg sends text messages and at least one photo to another ex-player, Chris Boyd. Later texts begin to plan a cover-up: Boyd discusses deleting photos and the victim’s inability to remember what happened.
At 3:09 a.m., Vandenburg covered a hallway surveillance camera with a white towel. It came down 17 minutes later. In the next hour, several athletes interact.
University officials later discovered surveillance footage of the attack in an unrelated attempt to find out who damaged another door in the building. The woman testified during the trial that she had no recollection of the events, which took place after Vandenburg “plied her with alcohol” at a local bar. Police told the Tennessean after the verdict that they had to inform the victim that she was raped.
The victim, who one officer described as “one of the strongest women I’ve ever met,” released a statement after the verdict saying that she was “thankful that the criminal justice system will hold the defendants responsible for their violent crimes…I am also hopeful that the publicity this case has received will lead to a discussion of how we can end sexual violence on college campuses. Finally, I want to remind other victims of sexual violence: You are not alone. You are not to blame.”
Deputy District Attorney Tom Thurman issued a similar statement to other victims, saying, “If you are a victim and you come forward, we will prosecute.”
The Vandy verdict comes at a time of increasing exposure for the issue of on-campus sexual assaults. Dozens of schools nationwide are facing federal investigations for potential violations of Title IX laws regarding campus sexual assault, and the White House in September unveiled a nationwide awareness campaign to draw attention to the problem.
Some of the most high-profile incidents have, like Vanderbilt, involved athletes, like the Jameis Winston case at Florida State and one involving three University of Oregon basketball players. Neither incident resulted in charges, though the Winston case led to major accusations against the school and local police department that both improperly handled the investigation, and both FSU and Oregon are facing civil lawsuits over the way they handled the cases.
The Vandy case is not over. Two more football players — Banks and McKenzie — are still awaiting trial. Batey and Vandenburg, meanwhile, face potential mandatory minimum sentences and years in prison once they are formally sentenced on March 6.