Four ex-Vanderbilt football players charged with raping unconscious woman

Four former Vanderbilt football players have been charged with raping an unconscious woman, police said on Friday, per The Tennesseean.

The four men — 20-year-old Brandon Vandenburg, 19-year-old Brandon Eric Banks, 18-year-old JaBorian “Tip” McKenzie, and 19-year-old Kevin Batey — were each charged with five counts of aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery. Vandenburg, a junior college transfer from Palm Desert, Calif., was also charged with one count of tampering with evidence and one count of unlawful photography, The Tennessean reports. Vandenburg held a 4.0 GPA at College of the Desert, and boasted in his Twitter bio about being an honors student.

Batey was arrested and taken to a hospital for a blood draw. Police were trying to locate the other three.

Police say the four men raped an unconscious woman in Vandenburg’s dorm room on June 23. Per The Tennesseean, police first learned of the matter after university officials checked a hallway security camera in an unrelated incident and saw suspicious behavior by the four men.

Vanderbilt dismissed the players in June and kicked them off campus after learning that police were investigating the incident.