Jurors view explicit images in ex-Vandy players' rape trial
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Recovered cellphone images said to show the sexual assault of an unconscious coed were on graphic display for jurors Friday in the rape trial of two former Vanderbilt football players.
The alleged victim sobbed quietly in the courtroom gallery as Nashville police detective Chad Gish went over image after image and described, sometimes in explicit detail, how she was repeatedly violated.
"She's been laid out here, looks completely incapacitated to me," Gish testified of one of the photos being shown to jurors. Some photos showed her lying in the dorm hallway; others showed her inside a dorm room lying on the floor, at times face down, Gish testified.
Brandon Vandenburg and Cory Batey are on trial. The two other former players who have been charged are expected to testify against them. All have pleaded not guilty.
Jurors strained in their chairs to see the images while Batey looked at his family during the testimony. People in the gallery could not see the images, but could hear the graphic descriptions.
Prosecutors say that the former players used their cellphones to take photos and shoot video of the woman during the attack while she lay helpless. At least one of the former players is said to have sent text messages at the time.
Gish told jurors that the images had been deleted but police were able to recover the photos from the phones of three of the players.
The detective also told jurors that Vandenburg had conducted searches on the Internet to investigate whether police would be able to retrieve photo and text messages that had been deleted from a cellphone.
Jurors were also shown pornographic photos that Vandenburg is alleged to have viewed during the attack.
One of Vandenburg's attorneys sought to keep out the pornographic images, saying that a 19-year-old viewing pornography in a dorm room shouldn't be relevant.
A Nashville sex crimes detective testified earlier in the day that an image from the school's video surveillance system led police to investigate what happened in the dorm at the Nashville school in June 2013.
The photos, Detective Jason Mayo testified, showed what appeared to be an unconscious female being dragged into a dorm room.
The photos led to a crime scene investigation in a school dorm room, the confiscation of cellphones and a computer and the DNA testing of nine football players.
Prosecutors have said that the players would never have been charged had it not been for a vandalism case that prompted Vanderbilt officials to go through the dorm's surveillance video.
One of Batey's defense attorneys fought to let jurors hear that Mayo had been disciplined in June 2013 for mishandling a child sex-abuse case. Mayo acknowledged that the wrong man had been indicted in a 22-count sex crime indictment.
Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins said the rules of evidence prevented jurors from hearing about the detective's troubles with the prior case.
Defense attorneys have said the evidence at trial will show that their clients are not guilty. They also have repeatedly mentioned that their underage clients were living in an environment that promotes binge drinking and promiscuous sex.