A former Alcorn State football player who briefly played for team after being dismissed from Vanderbilt on rape allegations, testified in court that a teammate encouraged players to have sex with an unconscious woman.
Joborian McKenzie told a Tennessee jury that one of his Vanderbilt teammates, Brandon Vandenburg, distributed condoms and was reportedly “excited” that there was a woman lying on the floor of a dorm room the day of the alleged rape.
“He was like amped, demanding,” McKenzie told jurors of Vandenburg’s demeanor. “He was hyper, like he was coaching us to do whatever.”
McKenzie testified that Vandenburg even tried to wake up his roommate, who was sleeping on the top bunk in a dorm room, to participate.
The roommate never got up, but McKenzie testified how his two best friends violated the female student. He said the alleged attack ended with Cory Batey urinating on the woman.
Batey and Vandenburg were charged with the rape of an unconscious student in June of 2013.
McKenzie and another football player, Brandon Banks, were also charged.
McKenzie told the court that he didn’t touch the woman but did admit to taking photos.
McKenzie transferred to Alcorn State and was momentarily on the football roster at the start of the 2013 season, playing in a game against Mississippi State before being dismissed from the team.
Head coach Jay Hopson said McKenzie was allowed to join the team because he believed he was “100 percent innocent.”
“Alcorn failed to sufficiently examine the allegations against McKenzie before allowing him to participate in our football program,” Alcorn State president M. Christopher Brown II said in a statement at the time. “In an effort to provide educational opportunities to a southwest Mississippi student, Alcorn State University made an error in judgment.”
