Vandenburg pleads guilty in dispute with school security guard

By Aldin Brown – City News Service

A former College of the Desert football star pleaded guilty Friday to a misdemeanor involving a confrontation with a security guard at a Palm Desert private school that his brothers attended, and was immediately sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation.

Brandon Robert Vandenburg, 22, must also pay a $650 fine and at least $275 in restitution to the victim, with a final restitution amount to be established later.

Vandenburg admitted a misdemeanor charge of using offensive words in a public place during the Feb. 27, 2014, dispute at Palm Desert Charter Middle School. Under the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to drop a misdemeanor charge of battery on a school employee.

Vandenburg was not present for Friday’s hearing at the Larson Justice Center in Indio. His attorney entered the plea on his behalf.

At the time of the middle school incident, Vandenburg was free on bail in a nationally publicized rape case out of Nashville that effectively ended his promising college football career at Vanderbilt University. Vandenburg was found guilty early last year in the videotaped rape of an
unconscious and intoxicated coed at Vanderbilt, but the conviction was thrown out last June.

The former Indio resident’s Tennessee lawyer won the mistrial by showing that the jury foreman had failed to disclose he had been a victim of rape as a child.

During a June bail hearing in Nashville, prosecutors cited the Riverside County case in asking that Vandenburg’s bail be increased from the pretrial amount of $350,000. Vandenburg has remained free on $400,000 bond.

The Nashville rape case is currently scheduled to be retried in late March or April.

The Riverside County case began when Vandenburg went to the local middle school to pick up his siblings and exchanged words with security guard Jaime Tarascio, according to court records. Tarascio informed Vandenburg that he had seized a basketball from one of the athlete’s two younger brothers — both of whom are students at the school — because the boy was dribbling in an unauthorized area and disturbing a nearby classroom.

Tarascio reportedly told Vandenburg that he would only return the basketball to a parent or other approved adult on the child’s emergency contact form

Vandenburg told Tarascio that he was on his brother’s emergency contact list. Tarascio said he would have to confirm and turned to walk into the office, court records show. Vandenburg — who was described in court records as 6-foot-6 and 255 pounds — allegedly snatched Tarascio’s sunglasses off his face, leaving a tiny scratch under the security officer’s left eyebrow.

“Vandenburg refused to give back Tarascio’s sunglasses and had to be forced off the school campus,” sheriff’s deputy Steve Rivera wrote.

Vandenburg finally set the sunglasses down on top of a school gate after being told that police were being notified, according to Rivera. But in subsequent court filings, Vandenburg’s lawyer said it was the other way around, and that Tarascio had roughed up the defendant.

“Vandenburg alleges Tarascio lied to prevent himself from being prosecuted,” attorney Albert Perez Jr., wrote. “Vandenburg suffered injuries to his neck and body because of Tarascio.”

The defense filing alleged that Rivera, the deputy, failed to interview witnesses and instead based his report on Tarascio’s account and a partial video of the incident provided by the security guard.