Convictions for Accused Rapists at Vanderbilt University

Parents Forum
81

@mom2collegekids, Vanderbilt basically requires all students to live in the dorms. There are a few exceptions for seniors to live off campus and 6 officers from each Greek house can live in the house. It is my understanding from when exH was a VU student, as well as from my kids’ time there, that there is an arcane TN law that said more than 6 single women in a house would be considered a brothel. Housing is shifting with the construction of new dorms, but during S & D’s time there, most upperclassmen lived in the Carmichael towers. There are 4 of them, 3 containing suites of 6 students, and 1 containing singles and doubles. I think some of the upperclassmen athletes preferred singles and doubles because it afforded them a quieter environment since they often report to practice early and keep irregular hours during their competitive seasons. S lived in that particular tower for two years.

The athletes do have a separate dining hall, but it is for all athletes, as I understand it. That would include even the womens bowling team (VU’s only championship prior to last year’s NCAA baseball victory). Dining, otherwise, is kind of disjointed at Vandy, IMO. For most of the last 30+ years,there was one central dining hall for all students, but it has nowhere near the seating that would be needed if everyone chose to eat there. Freshmen now have an amazing dining hall in the Commons complex opened just for them around 2007 or 2008. As of this year, upperclassmen also have a new dining option with the opening of a new housing complex for them.

Just my opinion, but I think there is a reasonable mingling of student athletes with other students since the undergraduate schools are what I would call a medium size - 6000 students. There is likely a tendency to gravitate to teammates based on the bonds formed via their sport, but it has always seemed to me that athletes were more integrated into the community than what I saw at my large state university. I vividly remember the freshman basketball players coming to large lecture sections with their tutors who took the notes and they definitely ate separately from the rest of us. (Their system has produced great results though and looks like it will again this year :wink: ).

82

“It is my understanding from when exH was a VU student, as well as from my kids’ time there, that there is an arcane TN law that said more than 6 single women in a house would be considered a brothel.”

Just jumping in to note that this is Snopes-worthy - this “more than X single women in a house is a brothel” is a canard that gets repeated about almost every college town in the country, often with respect to “why does this college not have sorority houses.” It’s just not true. They’ve found not one instance of such a law proclaiming more than X women in a house to be a brothel.

http://www.snopes.com/college/halls/brothel.asp

83

Thanks, @Pizzagirl. I just googled and it seems you are correct. Perhaps there is some other reason why there are no traditional (large) sorority houses at UT-Knoxville, Vandy, University of Memphis, Rhodes, etc. I would love for someone to clarify if there’s a universal reason or if it’s just coincidence. I guess I’ve been drinking the wrong Kool-Aid on that one for over 30 years!

84

I have been pretty plugged into this case since I’m a huge Vanderbilt sports fan and a lawyer in the Nashville area. I am pretty close to some of the Vandy coaches and many of the student/athletes.

Remember that this was a summer session and the athletes were living in a dorm they would not have normally been in.

Also- Vandenburg and the victim were not “on a dinner date”. Everyone had been drinking prior to going to Tin Roof, drank excessively at Tin Roof (where a booster bought drinks for the football players, which is a whole other story and led to athletes not being permitted (by Vandy) to go to Tin Roof anymore) and then managed to get back to the dorm, with a drunk and high Vandenburg driving the victim’s car.

Vandenburg, in my opinion, should never have been allowed on the Vanderbilt campus. I honestly think he has a mental problem and is not “all there”, from my observations over the last 19 months. He was a junior college transfer and, I believe, a huge mistake on the part of ex-coach (fondly referred to as “Poach” in these parts) James Franklin, now at Penn State. He is clearly a bad human being. Corey Batey is a local kid and had a scholarship to one of the top prep schools in town (based on his athletics). He is from a good family with a single mom who raised a bunch of kids. Batey struggled a little academically at Ensworth, but was well-liked and I have several co-workers and friends whose kids knew him and absolutely are stunned that he would do something like this. Yet he did.

I think it is simply wrong to think that the families are to blame in any way. I’m sure they did the best they could to raise their kids and they are entitled to their grief at what their sons did and the fact that they will be going to prison for decades. I feel sorry for the families and I’m sure they held onto every shred of hope during the trial.

My concern now is that the defense is trying to vacate the verdict due to a juror who didn’t disclose that she was a rape victim. I don’t think it will work, but I don’t like that this came out at this point.

We watched the verdict being read in real time at work and it was a quick and stunning condemnation of the actions of these two (four, really) young men. We are also dismayed at the failure of SO many others to help the young woman or make at least an anonymous phone call.

I can assure you that these men are NOT representative of Vanderbilt student-athletes. I am more familiar with the basketball and baseball players than the football players, but this situation is a disgrace and is being used as a huge lesson by all the current coaches. I’m not saying that James Franklin is at all culpable, because I do believe he acted appropriately as soon as he learned of the incident, but he sure beat it out of here quickly. I have a lot more faith in the moral compass of our current football coach and I would trust my life to the baseball and basketball coaches.

85

Given the occurrences at Vanderbilt, Stanford, Hobart, etc, I am wondering which colleges will step up and be proactive in order to reduce the number of assaults on their campuses?

The SaVE Act, which went into effect in 2014, does require this. Let me tell you, it does not come without a cost attached to it, which must then be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher tuition. My small college is struggling with the cost involved in complying with the requirements. In fact, we struggle with the costs involved in all of the things we are required to do … and all of the things that we may not be required to do but realize we need to do … to keep our young people from hurting themselves and others. Believe me, it isn’t easy being a college these days. We are expected to be the kind of parent many of our students’ parents apparently never were.

I don’t mean to make light of assaults, or of the fact that some schools have indeed tried to minimize assaults or swept them under the rug. But because of some, even schools who have been doing the right thing all along now have to pony up the money needed to maintain compliance with a set of rules that requires high-paid lawyers and high-paid trainers. I understand it, though.

86

@MOWC- do you have any thoughts on why, given the damning evidence in this case, the defense did not try to negotiate a plea deal? Was it that the prosecution was not receptive? Or did the defense think they had a legitimate chance at getting at least Vandenburg an acquittal?

87

Upthread I replied that the Vanderbilt victim was drugged. I should have said impaired, although I personally believe that being under the influence of that much alcohol is a form of being drugged.

88

I know that CNN reported she was drugged but I could find no mention of it anywhere else.

89

@HarvestMoon1 Sometimes in high profile cases with very strong evidence (such as video footage) prosecutors decline to offer any sort of plea deal. In that case the defendant has the option of lodging a guilty plea, and putting themselves at the mercy of the court for sentencing. Or they can plead not guilty and go to trial.

My guess is that here, where there were so many counts that the defendants were facing, they felt it made sense to go to trial in the hopes that there might be NG verdicts on at least some of the counts.

90

I am not convinced that Vandenburg didn’t drug her at the bar.

The reason the case went to trial is because the prosecution had such strong evidence that they were not offering any plea bargains that were at all less than the expected sentence. (I was told that by someone very close to the case)

91

Will be very interesting to see what the judge does with sentencing. But the juror not disclosing a prior rape is problematic and almost guarantees an appeal.

92

I read online that she testified that she had been prescribed Prozac. According to an online resource I checked,

http://www.healthline.com/health/depression/prozac-alcohol#WithAlcohol3

MOWC, very bad news about the juror. Hiding that history can’t have been an oversight, and I think any reasonable person would agree that that would prejudice that juror.

93

We don’t think the judge will grant a new trial and we don’t think the defense will prevail on appeal. Maybe wishful thinking, but the juror did not lie- she wasn’t clearly asked. Fingers crossed.

94

I hope the verdict doesn’t get thrown out.

BTW, the jury did NOT find the 2 guilty on the highest charges on all counts. There was testimony that Batey was unable to get an erection. He was found guilty of ATTEMPTED aggravated rape on the count alleging vaginal rape with his penis, a lesser included offense. To me, that means the jury really did listen to the evidence.

I think it’s obvious that the prosecutors DID plea bargain. Boyd copped to a misdemeanor. McKenzie probably–just a guess–was engaged in a plea bargaining of some sort during which he was told that the prosecutor’s recommendation depended upon testimony at trial. One of the two kids Vandenburg sent a video to accepted a plea deal right after his testimony.

That’s how it goes with a case like this–people who “flip” early get better deals than those who hold out.

My understanding, based on news accounts, is that the football team was there for summer practice, not to take classes. So, they were all staying on the same floor. Boyd was in the room next to Vandenburg, which is why Vandenburg called or texted him for help moving the victim.

I am sympathetic to the perps’ parents, but, that said…the statements the Vandenburg family has made during the trial asking people to pray to God to help their son overcome the people with “ulterior motives” who are prosecuting him are a bit hard to take.

95

It’s pretty common for prosecutors to bargain with some participants in order to gain their testimony. It seems pretty clear, however, that no significant plea bargain was offered to the first two to be tried, and justifiably so. At this point the second two might be offered something, but it won’t be much.

I would think that the defense attorney’s failure to ask the question of prior history on voir dire might be raised on appeal (ineffective assistance). Not saying it would prevail. But if case law supports a claim, it will be raised.

96

If a jury is made up of peers, I don’t know why one person who was raped shouldn’t be allowed on the jury.

If a court decision can be thrown out because a juror was raped, why would a defense attorney ever ask a prospective juror if she was raped? Better to wait until after the verdict and if you don’t like the verdict, then find out if a juror was raped. Then you can have the verdict thrown out.

The verdicts from the jury were decided so quickly, and the other 11 jurors weren’t raped, I would hope that finding a juror was raped would be determined to not be material.

97

dstark- You are missing the point. The defense will argue that this juror was unable to be impartial and that she would have either been dismissed by the judge or would have been struck by the defense before trial. She will claim that she was able to be fair and impartial.

I think it took awhile for the Vandenburgs to come to grips with what their son did. My understanding is that the players are in class while they are on campus for summer practice. Most of the revenue sport athletes take summer classes so that they can have a lighter load during season.

Also, remember none of the 4 ever played for Vanderbilt. Vandenburg was new on campus and was a junior college transfer and the other three redshirted. Chris Boyd was a very unfortunate casualty of all this- not that I am defending his cover up of all this at all. I just hate all of this so much and am so proud of the strength of the young woman.

98

@MomofWildChild How did this incident initially come to the attention of the administration and police? Who reported it?

99

I understand what the defense is going to try and accomplish.

I am hoping what the defense does doesn’t fly.

100

A defendant is entitled to objective jurors. It is the defense attorney’s duty during jury selection to ask proper questions to determine whether a juror can be objective. This is why it will be so difficult to find jurors for the Boston Marathon bombing case.

A single juror who is not objective (I’m not saying that this person wasn’t objective, BTW) can indeed be material. There have been many instances in which one persuasive juror has influenced an entire panel.