Vandy football player convicted of rape in trouble again
INDIO, Calif. - A former Vanderbilt University football player convicted in Tennessee of raping and filming an intoxicated student is now facing a misdemeanor charge in California accusing him of roughing up a security guard at his brother's middle school, reports CBS Los Angeles.
Brandon Vandenburg, 21, is facing a single misdemeanor count of battery against a school employee stemming from an alleged Feb. 27, 2014 confrontation at Palm Desert Charter Middle School in Palm Desert, Calif.
At the time of the alleged incident, Vandenburg was free on bail and awaiting trial for rape and other charges in Nashville, Tenn. He was ultimately found guilty on Jan. 28, 2015, along with another Vanderbilt football player, Corey Batey, of the 2013 rape of an unconscious 21-year-old woman. Vandenburg is scheduled to be sentenced in that case on April 24 and faces decades in prison.
CBS Los Angeles reports that, according to a court declaration in support of an arrest warrant in connection with the California incident, Vandenburg went to his brother's school that day around 3:34 p.m. and was confronted by campus security officer Jamie Tarascio. Vandeburg told Tarascio his name and said he was on his brother's emergency contact list, according to the document.
Tarascio said he would have to confirm that Vandenburg was authorized to be on the campus and turned to walk into an administration office, sheriff's investigator Steve Rivera wrote. That's when Vandenburg - who is described in court records as 6-foot-6 and 255 pounds - snatched Tarascio's sunglasses off his face, leaving a tiny scratch under the security officer's left eyebrow, Rivera wrote.
"Vandenburg refused to give back Tarascio's sunglasses and had to be forced off the school campus," according to the declaration.
Vandenburg later set the sunglasses down on top of a school gate after being told that police were being notified, according to Rivera.