A former athletic star with a promising future has been convicted and sentenced for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in a shocking story that made national news. No, it’s not the Stanford rape case, but the Vanderbilt rape case, and while there may be some similarities in the two stories, the Vanderbilt rape case differs in a couple of major ways. The first being that the Vanderbilt rape involved four assailants and the second being a considerably different sentence handed down for the first of the two convicted, as another awaits sentencing and two more await trial. Former Vanderbilt football star Cory Batey did not get six months of jail time like Stanford swimmer Brock Turner but was sentenced to the mandatory minimum 15 years in prison for aggravated rape, according to The Tennessean .
Before Batey’s sentencing Friday, the victim gave a tearful impact statement on the devastation of the assault, arranged by one of the other assailants who was her boyfriend at the time. She asked the court to sentence Batey to the maximum sentence of 25 years, due to the aggravating circumstances surrounding the Vanderbilt rape, some of which she detailed in her statement.
“You will never understand what this has done to me if you aren’t standing in my shoes. The humiliation, the pain, the isolation, being reduced to nothing but a piece of flesh right before your eyes, it does something to you that is truly impossible to describe… Something permanent snapped that day. I felt myself detach from my body. Now, I feel like I’m walking around in the shell of someone else. A part of me went numb, a sense of being a whole person with hopes and dreams about what’s possible in the world is now gone. I thought the world was a better place than it is… [S]exual assault was not where the attack ended. Mr. Batey continued to abuse and degrade me, urinating on my face while uttering horrific racial hate speech that suggested I deserved what he was doing to me because of the color of my skin. He didn’t even know who I was. “
In this second Vanderbilt rape trial — after the first was declared a mistrial when a juror failed to reveal he had been a victim of statutory rape — Batey was convicted on seven counts as follows:
- Count 1: aggravated rape, penetration of vagina with fingers; guilty of aggravated sexual battery
- Count 2: aggravated rape, penetration of anus with fingers; guilty
- Count 3: aggravated rape, fellatio on mouth; guilty of attempted aggravated rape
- Count 4: aggravated rape, penetration of vagina with penis; guilty of attempted aggravated rape
- Count 5: criminal responsibility for Brandon E. Banks penetrating anus with object; guilty of facilitation
- of aggravated rape
- Count 6: aggravated sexual battery, criminal responsibility for Banks touching genital area; guilty
- Count 7: aggravated sexual battery, Batey placing his buttocks on face; guilty
Batey also gave a statement claiming he did not remember the incidents of the night and apologized for any harm he “may” have caused. He also pleaded with the court that he needed to be a role model for his infant son. His attorney, Courtney Teasley, claimed Batey should be found “not guilty” because the other convicted assailant awaiting sentencing, Brandon Vandenburg, orchestrated the assault and was the one responsible. She went even further claiming that despite video and photographic evidence, there was no major crime committed, according to The Tennessean .
“What happened to (the victim) is not right, but it’s not rape.”
While some may wonder if race was a factor in the huge difference in sentencing in the Stanford rape case of Brock Turner, who is white, and Batey, who is African-American, Tennessee law required a sentence of at least 15 years. It remains to be seen what sentence will be given to the other Vanderbilt rape perpetrator who has been convicted, Brandon Vandenburg. Vandenburg has been accused of coordinating the Vanderbilt rape, even though he didn’t physically rape the woman, who was his girlfriend at the time. However, even though Vandenburg didn’t physically assault the woman, in Tennessee, encouraging rape is treated the same as the physical act. According to testimony, Vandenburg even passed out condoms, telling the others as long as they use the condoms, they couldn’t be convicted of rape with no DNA evidence.
Vandenburg then videotaped the assault, providing the evidence needed for conviction. Vandenburg was convicted on five counts of aggravated rape, two counts of aggravated sexual battery, and unlawful photography. Like Batey, he faces a 15- to 25-year sentence.
The assault occurred in 2013 after the woman met Vandenburg for a drink, then remembers nothing except waking up in terrible pain the next day. The investigation first started after campus security noted four men carrying the unconscious woman into the dormitory to Vandenburg’s room, where surveillance video showed they remained there for 32 minutes. The investigation eventually lead to the discovery of the video footage and photos of the assault.
In addition to Vandenburg and Batey, the other two accused are fellow football players Brandon E. Banks and Jaborian “Tip” McKenzie, who have both pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
[Photos by Samuel M. Simpkins/The Tennessean via AP and Christian Petersen/Getty Images]
