New rape trial opens for former Vanderbilt football players

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MGN Online

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A former Vanderbilt football player being retried for rape appears to have abandoned attempts to blame college culture. Instead, a lawyer for Cory Batey told jurors during opening statements Monday that he was drunk and manipulated by three teammates.

Batey and three other former players are charged with raping an unconscious female student in a dorm in June 2013.

A prosecutor told jurors that the female student was unconscious and treated like a piece of trash by the football players. He said the 30-minute attack on the student ended with Batey urinating on her.

Batey is standing trial alone this week.

He and another player were previously convicted in the case but the verdict was overturned after lawyers discovered that the jury foreman was a victim of statutory rape.

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