When asked about Vanderbilt rape case at press conference, James Franklin changes the topic to Tanzania (Video)
James Franklin does not want to talk about anything associated with the Vanderbilt rape case.
The topic came up in Franklin's media availability after a local news report on Monday about Chris Boyd, one of the former players involved in the incident. When Franklin was asked about the report, without hesitating, he brought up a recent athletic department trip the Tanzania. And when he got a follow up question about it, he stuck to the Tanzania story. (Here's the video.)
Why was it a topic? On Monday, a Nashville news station reported a story that said that Boyd was still enrolled at the university on his football scholarship after being dismissed from the football team.
Boyd, who had been accused of helping attempt to cover up the incident, reached a plea deal and pled guilty to misdemeanor charges in exchange for testimony against four of his former teammates. Days after the plea deal was reached, Boyd was officially dismissed from the team. But not expelled from the university.
The four players accused of the crime, Brandon Vandenburg, Corey Batey, Brandon Boyd and Jaborian McKenzie, are still facing felony charges and are no longer students at Vanderbilt. They are accused of raping an unconscious female on June 23
According to the Vanderbilt code of conduct, "The presumptive sanction for any student found responsible for Non-Consensual Sexual Intercourse is suspension or expulsion," while "Any student found responsible for Non-Consensual Sexual Contact or other forms of sexual misconduct, including sexual harassment, may face a sanction ranging from a reprimand to expulsion, depending on the severity of the incident, and taking into account any previous conduct infractions."
Boyd falls into the latter category, as a"aiding in the commission of sexual misconduct as an accomplice" is included in the list of sexual misconduct offenses. Per the Fox 17 report, Vanderbilt declined to explain why Boyd is still on scholarship.
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