James Franklin Testified He Did Not See Vanderbilt Rape Case Video, But Told Team He Did

Penn State coach James Franklin testified that he lied to his former Vanderbilt players, claiming to have seen the rape case video. He says he did so because he did not want to “water down the message” in a team meeting.

"“I had just gotten done meeting with the administration and I didn’t want to go in and water my message down to the team,” Franklin testified. “I didn’t want to say ‘I was told, I saw a video from somebody else.’ That’s what I did. I addressed the team and spoke as if I had seen the video because I was angry and upset and I didn’t want to water down the message to them."

"“I did talk about the video as if I had seen it, based on what was described to me from the administration. I didn’t think that was the right way to deliver my message to the team at the time.”"

In a Buzzfeed report from last September, a “source close to one of the defendants” claimed he was 99 percent sure Franklin had seen the video and “encouraged a player to delete a video of the incident.” Franklin denied the allegation in the report, terming it “baseless.” He was cleared of wrongdoing during the investigation.