A fifth Vanderbilt football player was arrested in connection to an alleged rape at the Gillette dorm rooms in Nashville. Vanderbilt wide receiver Chris Boyd turned himself in on Monday morning, after being indicted of allegedly engineering a cover-up for his former teammates following the alleged crime on June 23rd.
Four other players, who have since been dismissed from the team and banned from the Vanderbilt campus, were charged with raping an unconscious 21-year-old victim at one of the player's dorm rooms.
Brandon Vandenburg, 20, of Indio, Calif.; Cory Batey, 19, of Nashville; Brandon Banks, 19, of Brandywine, Md.; and Jaborian McKenzie, 19, of Woodville, Miss., each face five counts of aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery.
Boyd is accused of providing advice to certain players who were charged. The Nashville Police Department said two other men were arrested and charged with one felony count each of tampering with evidence.
The police also wouldn't rule out the possibility of more arrests, which means all of this could still be unfolding when the Commodores begin their season. Of course, this is one of those situations that certainly puts football in its proper perspective, reminiscent of the Steubenville High School rape case of a year ago.
The most important task is to make the effort of getting to the bottom of what happened that night and letting that process play out. Whether Vanderbilt picks up where it left off from winning its last seven games of the 2012 season, is irrelevant at this point.
