Story highlights
NEW: School official: Chris Boyd is suspended from team after "deeply troubling" allegations
The standout Vanderbilt wide receiver faces an accessory after the fact charge
2 California men are charged with tampering with evidence, Nashville police say
4 ex-Vanderbilt players face rape, other charges tied to June incident at school dorm
The case revolving around an alleged rape inside a Vanderbilt University dorm ballooned Friday, when police announced indictments against three more young men, one of them a standout on the Commodores’ football team.
None of the three faces charges of rape or another sex crime tied to the June 23 incident. They are accused over their actions after the alleged crime.
Chris Boyd, a rising junior wide receiver at Vanderbilt, faces one felony count of being an accessory after the fact, according to the Nashville, Tennessee, police department. His school’s athletic department, on its website, late Friday still hailed the suburban Atlanta native’s on-field accomplishments and noted he is on the official “watch list” for the Biletnikoff Award, which is given annually to college football’s top receiver.
Boyd, 21, is accused of being part of an effort to cover up the alleged sexual assault “through his advice to certain defendants who were indicted last week,” police said.
Authorities don’t spell out who Boyd allegedly talked to, or what he told them.
Judge Steve Dozier set bond at $25,000 for Boyd, who police said “is expected to surrender.”
Vanderbilt spokeswoman Beth Fortune said Friday that in light of the charge, Boyd has been suspended from the school’s football team “pursuant to the athletic department conduct policy.”
“All of these allegations, including those brought today, are deeply troubling, and we take them very seriously,” Fortune said in a statement.
Four Vanderbilt football players – Brandon Vandenburg, Corey Batey, Brandon Banks and Jaborian McKenzie – were indicted earlier this month in direct connection to the alleged rape. All four were subsequently dismissed from their team and suspended from school.
Police: Ex-Vanderbilt football players in custody facing rape charges
Police said each of the four men was charged with five counts of aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery. Vandenburg is also charged with one count of tampering with evidence and one count of unlawful photography.
Two alleged acquaintances of Vandenburg were also indicted Friday.
Miles Joseph Finley, a 19-year-old from Bermuda Dunes, California, and Joseph Dominick Quinzio, a 20-year-old from neighboring Palm Desert, are charged with one felony count apiece of tampering with evidence.
“They are alleged to have tampered with certain electronic evidence in the case,” police said, without giving specifics.
Finley was “quickly apprehended” by Riverside County, California, sheriff’s deputies after initially trying to flee, according to Nashville police. As of late Friday afternoon, authorities in California were still trying to locate Quinzio.
Bond for Finley and Quinzio is $150,000 each.
Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson suggested authorities aren’t finished, describing the investigation as “open and active.”
“We are looking at all persons who may have been involved in this event before, during and after the fact,” Anderson said. “Additional charges cannot be ruled out.
CNN’s Joe Sutton contributed to this report.
