Attorneys for the former Vanderbilt University football players convicted of rape and sexual battery requested a mistrial, accusing a juror of withholding information.
According to ESPN, defense attorneys representing Brandon Vandenburg and Corey Batey accused Todd Easter of purposefully concealing information that could have caused him to be skipped over as a juror. The 31-year-old who agreed to his name being released was victim to statutory rape when he was 16.
At a hearing Monday, Easter reportedly testified he did not mention the case because he felt the sexual act was consensual. Easter contended the perpetrator, a man from Sumner County, was only convicted because his parents pursued charges against his wishes.
Prosecutors in Vandenburg and Batey's trial argued at the hearing that Easter's relationship at the time was "wholly consensual in his mind, therefore, he never considered himself a victim," the Tennessean reported.
Vandenburg and Batey, both 21, were convicted in late Jan. of all the charges against them, which included aggravated rape and sexual battery. Along with two other former football players at Vanderbilt, Vandenburg and Batey were accused of raping an unconscious woman in a dorm room in June 2013.
The jurors deliberated for about three hours, the Tennessean reported at the time.
Now, the defense is asking for a new trial for their clients, arguing that Easter, who was the jury's foreman, could not have been impartial.
If Vandenburg and Batey get a new trial, their attorneys could ask for their release from jail, where they have awaited a sentencing hearing since the verdict. It would also allow the defense to seek a plea deal that would give the two men shorter prison sentences.
"I think it's a good move to file the motion prior to sentencing," Rob McKinney, an attorney in Nashville, told the Tennessean. "Why put the victim through all this (sentencing) testimony if the court is going to grant the mistrial?"
