Vanderbilt forward Lee Dort suspended after arrest on aggravated assault charge
Lee Dort was charged with aggravated assault by strangulation in Nashville on Sunday
Content warning: This post contains descriptions of alleged domestic violence and assault.
Vanderbilt forward Lee Dort was arrested on a felony aggravated assault charge Sunday morning and has since been suspended from the team, according to the Tennessean’s Aria Gerson.
Police were called to a dorm room on Vanderbilt’s campus shortly after 1 a.m. Sunday. Dort’s ex-girlfriend told police that Dort, who had turned 21 the day before, took her phone and shoved her against a wall and bedpost in the dorm room, per the report. The woman later slid down the bed and Dort allegedly gripped her neck.
Dort was then arrested later that morning at Memorial Gymnasium, where the Commodores play. He was charged with aggravated assault by strangulation. He was released on bond Sunday afternoon.
"We are aware of the matter and have suspended student-athlete Lee Dort from the basketball team pending the outcomes of the university's and the legal system's processes," Vanderbilt spokesman Jacob Bell said in a statement, via The Associated Press.
Dort, a sophomore out of McKinney, Texas, averaged 1.7 points and 2.1 rebounds per game last season with the Commodores. Dort, who was a four-star Rivals.com recruit coming out of high school, has played in just one game this season in part due to injury.
The Commodores are 3-3 so far this season, the fifth under coach Jerry Stackhouse, and have lost two straight. They’ll host Boston College on Wednesday.
