Vanderbilt Woman Didn't Think She'd Been Raped Until She Saw Video Of It
The Vanderbilt University student who was allegedly raped by several football players last year testified Thursday that she didn't believe she had been sexually assaulted until investigators showed her video of the incident.
The woman, a then-21-year-old majoring in neuroscience and economics, had reportedly been dating 21-year-old Brandon Vandenburg, a football player at the school. One night in June, 2013, she allegedly drank multiple drinks and reportedly awoke clothed, in a strange bedroom, with no memory of the night before. When she asked, Vandenburg allegedly told her he cared for her after she puked in his bedroom.
"He told me that I had gotten sick in his room and he had to clean it up and that it was horrible and that he had to spend all night taking care of me and that it was horrible," she testified of what Vandenberg told her about what had happened. "I apologized. I was embarrassed."
But surveillance videos reportedly said otherwise:
Detectives asked the woman to get a physical examination, but she initially refused, still not knowing what had happened.
When Vandenberg sent her a text message saying that he was probably going to get kicked off the team, she replied by telling him, "I don't want anyone to get in trouble because of me."
"I'll do everything I can to clear your name," she said in a text to Vandenberg.
Her main concern at the time, she testified, was protecting him. To this day, she said she has no memory of what happened.
It was after Vandenburg and three other football players were charged with her rape that she would see graphic videos of the alleged attack, she testified. Prosecutors played videos of the alleged attack for jurors that they said were shot from Vandenburg's cellphone. A Nashville detective testified that police were able to recover the videos from a laptop.
The details are, according to court testimony, horrifying. Vandenburg allegedly "passed out condoms, encouraging players to have sex" with the passed out victim, tried to wake up his sleeping roommate to participate, and allowed one teammate, Cory Batey, to urinate on the victim when they were done assaulting her.
The prosecution rested its case today in the criminal trial against Vandenburg and Batey. Two other football players, Brandon Banks and Jaborian "Tip" McKenzi, are also facing charges but have not yet begun trial.
All four have entered pleas of not guilty.
[image via AP]