Former Vanderbilt football players, Charged with rape

Four former Vanderbilt University football players were charged Friday in the rape of an unconscious student in a Gillette Hall dormitory room in a case police described as “unsettling.”

Brandon Vandenburg, 20, from California; Brandon Eric Banks, 19, from Maryland; JaBorian “Tip” McKenzie, 18 from Mississippi and Cory Batey, 19, of Nashville, were charged with five counts each of aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery. Vandenburg was also charged with one count of unlawful photography and tampering with evidence.

Police said the case came to light only after university officials saw something suspicious while reviewing surveillance camera footage in an unrelated matter.

A witness list accompanying Friday’s indictments indicates police plan to subpoena the team’s starting quarterback, Austyn Carta-Samuels, along with four other athletes, Mack Prioleau, De’Andre Woods, Jake Bernstein and Dillon van der Wal, as witnesses in the case.

Police picked up Batey Friday morning, forced him to undergo a state-mandated blood test for HIV at Nashville General Hospital at Meharry and then booked him into jail on a $350,000 bond.

Police said the three others know they are wanted.

“We have been in contact with law enforcement authorities out of state and made them aware of the persons being wanted,” said Don Aaron, spokesman for Metro Police. “If they decide to surrender, that's on them. In the interim, if law enforcement runs into them... they'll be taken into custody.”

All four ex-players have hired attorneys. Banks’ attorney, Grover Collins, said he couldn’t talk about the case.

“At this point I don’t feel like it’s appropriate to comment at this time,” he said.