Defense seeks mistrial in Vanderbilt rape case

Attorneys for a former Vanderbilt University football player convicted of raping an unconscious student in 2013 have asked the judge to declare a mistrial.

The motion, filed by Brandon Vandenburg's attorneys, was expected. It claims that a juror who heard Vandenburg's trial in January intentionally withheld information that he was a rape victim during the jury selection process so he could serve on the jury, and thus was biased in his verdict.

Jurors unanimously found Vandenburg and Cory Batey guilty of aggravated rape and other counts after a more than two-week trial in January.

The eight-page motion was filed by Vandenburg's appeals attorneys, Troy Bowlin and Randall Reagan, of East Tennessee. It asks Criminal Court Judge Monte Watkins to declare a mistrial or set aside Vandenburg's conviction.

They also filed a 16-page memo in support of their position. Court officials said nothing had been filed on Batey's behalf, but a similar motion is likely in his case.

The motion for a new trial says that prosecutors asked potential jurors if they had been crime victims. Jurors also were told if they heard questions being asked to other jurors that applied to them, they should volunteer information.

The motion says the juror questioned immediately before the disputed juror was asked if she knew someone who had been a victim of sexual touching. But the juror whose role in the case is now contested denied knowing anyone who had been the victim of such a crime, the motion says and cites trial transcripts.

Jim Todd, a Nashville attorney who analyzed the case for The Tennessean, reviewed the filings Friday.

"I think it's got teeth," he said, adding that the U.S. Constitution requires a fair and impartial jury.

"Granted no one asked the specific question, 'Have you ever been the victim of a sex offense?' but he is asked generalized questions repeatedly that, taken in the totality of the circumstances, tend to show that he was being less than forthcoming, bordering on perjurious," Todd said.

The potential issue came to light after trial, when a man came forward and said he was convicted of a crime in which the juror was a victim. The motion says the man was charged with 23 counts of statutory rape and convicted. The motion says the juror said he did not consider himself a victim in the case, even though other court documents say he was "enticed into a sexual relationship by the use of drugs and alcohol."

"Whatever his motivations, (the juror) willfully failed to disclose in (jury selection) that he had been a victim of statutory rape, information that anyone would know was relevant to the inquiry of the attorneys and made him singularly unsuited to be a juror in a criminal case involving allegations of sexual assault," the motion reads. "The willful failure to disclose requires that this Court grant a mistrial."

Watkins has not yet set a date to hear the motion. The trial transcripts are under seal, according to a court officer, and will not be publicly released.

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 and on Twitter @sbarchenger.