Reduced Bail for Coachella Valley Men Accused of Evidence Tampering in Vanderbilt Rape Case

Two Coachella Valley men accused of tampering with evidence in connection with the alleged rape of an unconscious woman by athletes with Vanderbilt University's SEC football team had their bail reduced Wednesday to $15,000 each in Riverside court.

Miles Joseph Finley, 19, of Bermuda Dunes, and Joseph Dominick Quinzio, 20, of Palm Desert were previously held without bail on warrants issued in Tennessee, but a judge Wednesday reduced their bonds at hearings at the Riverside Hall of Justice.


A total of seven individuals have been indicted in the case, Susan Niland of the Davidson County District Attorney General's Office in Nashville told Patch Tuesday.

The case includes defendants with ties to Vanderbilt's NCAA Division I football program, which competes in the SEC, one the strongest collegiate athletics conferences in the nation.

Finley and Quinzio, who are charged with felony counts of tampering with electronic evidence in the Vanderbilt case, were arrested Friday near their homes.

Riverside County District Attorney's Office spokesman John Hall said Finley declined Wednesday to waive extradition and is due back in court on Oct. 18.

Finley's attorney, Virginia Blumenthal, said she has been in contact with the District Attorney General's office in Nashville, and said her client posted bail Wednesday.

"There's obviously something tragic that occurred in Tennessee," she told City News Service. "My client was not there, my client has never been to Tennessee."

She declined to comment further, saying she hadn't yet received the prosecution's case report.

Quinzio appeared in court Monday and also declined to waive extradition. His attorney, Brett Greenfield, told City News Service today that the judge ruled that Quinzio wasn't a flight risk or a danger, and that Greenfield's office has been in contact with prosecutors in Tennessee.

He said his client would post bail Wednesday, and there has not been an extradition warrant filed for him in Tennessee.

"I don't expect there's going to be an extradition. I expect this matter to be resolved one way or another," Greenfield said Wednesday afternoon.

He said Quinzio is a college student and collegiate football player who was "dragged into a very terrible situation ... he wants nothing to do with this, he wants to get as far away as possible. He's done nothing wrong, he's innocent."

His client "simply received a communication by way of cell phone what was unsolicited, unprompted, unasked for in any way," Greenfield said, adding the case has been "very damaging" to Quinzio.

Quinzio is also due back in court Oct. 18.

Finley also appeared in court in Indio on Tuesday, where he pleaded guilty to an unrelated misdemeanor charge of driving with a suspended license. Hall said the misdemeanor case needed to be resolved before the extradition hearing on the Vanderbilt case could occur.

Finley and Quinzio are former teammates of Brandon Vandenburg, a 20-year-old Indio native charged with aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery. Vandenburg and three other former Vanderbilt football players are accused of sexually assaulting the unconscious 21-year-old student on June 23. All four pleaded not guilty Wednesday in a Nashville courtroom.

Vandenburg is also accused of one felony count of unlawful photography, when the alleged victim "had a reasonable expectation of privacy . . . and the photograph would offend or embarrass an ordinary person if such person appeared in the photograph, and the photograph was taken for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification of . . . Vandenburg . . . (who) did disseminate or permit the dissemination of the photograph to another person," according to a copy of the indictments obtained by Patch.

Finley, Quinzio and Vandenburg attended Xavier College Preparatory High School in Palm Desert and played football there.

Finley and Quinzio were indicted Friday in Nashville, as was Vanderbilt wide receiver Chris Boyd, 21, who is charged with one felony count of being an accessory after the fact, according to Nashville police. Boyd also pleaded not guilty Wednesday.

The indictment states that Finley and Quinzio, "knowing that an investigation or or official proceeding was pending, or in progress, did intentionally or knowingly alter, destroy, or conceal any record, document, or thing with intent to impair its verity, legibility, or availability as evidence ..."

Nashville police Chief Steve Anderson said Friday that detectives were looking at everyone who may have had some involvement in the alleged rape, before, during and after the fact.

- Patch editor Guy McCarthy contributed to this City News Service report.