Brenda Tracy, a outstanding rape survivor and activist, says Mel Tucker made sexual feedback and masturbated with out consent throughout a telephone name. Her grievance led to an ongoing Title IX investigation.
UPDATE: This story has been up to date with information that inside hours of publication of USA TODAY’s investigation, MSU suspended Coach Mel Tucker with out pay.
Two years in the past, one of many nation’s star faculty soccer coaches and a outstanding rape survivor teamed as much as struggle the tradition of sexual violence in sports activities.
Their partnership ought to have been a power for good. Instead, it has devolved into scandal, with the activist accusing the coach of the identical misconduct that each of them preached towards.
The accused is Mel Tucker, the pinnacle soccer coach at Michigan State University and one of many highest paid coaches in all of sports activities. Accusing him is Brenda Tracy, a rape survivor who has made educating athletes about sexual violence her life’s work.
Over eight months, they developed an expert relationship centered on her advocacy work. Tucker invited Tracy to campus 3 times – twice to talk to his gamers and workers and as soon as to be acknowledged as an honorary captain on the group’s spring soccer sport.
But their relationship was upended throughout a telephone name on April 28, 2022, Tracy says in a grievance she filed with the college’s Title IX workplace in December that is still below investigation.
According to her grievance, Tracy sat frozen for a number of minutes whereas Tucker made sexual feedback about her and masturbated. His violation, she stated, reopened 25-year-old wounds from her rape by 4 males – two Oregon State University soccer gamers, a junior faculty participant and a highschool recruit.
“The idea that someone could know me and say they understand my trauma but then re-inflict that trauma on me is so disgusting to me, it’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,” she informed USA TODAY. “It’s like he sought me out just to betray me.”
In his statements to the Title IX investigator, Tucker acknowledged masturbating on the decision however stated Tracy grossly mischaracterized the episode. According to him, they’d consensual “phone sex.”
“Ms. Tracy’s distortion of our mutually consensual and intimate relationship into allegations of sexual exploitation has really affected me,” Tucker wrote in a March 22 letter to the investigator. “I am not proud of my judgment and I am having difficulty forgiving myself for getting into this situation, but I did not engage in misconduct by any definition.”
Michigan State employed an outdoor Title IX lawyer to research the grievance. She completed her investigation in July. A proper listening to to find out whether or not Tucker violated the varsity’s coverage banning sexual harassment and exploitation is scheduled for Oct. 5 and 6, throughout the Spartans’ bye week.
The stakes are excessive for everybody.
Tracy says Tucker is following by means of on a risk to destroy her profession and repute by portray her as a girl who mixes skilled and private relationships and information false experiences. She fears he’ll undo her legacy.
Tucker, who signed some of the profitable contracts in faculty sports activities historical past two years in the past, may lose out on the roughly $80 million he’s owed if Michigan State fires him for trigger, which might be a surprising fall from the elite ranks of faculty coaches.
Reached by USA TODAY on his cellphone Saturday night time, Tucker hung up after a reporter talked about the case.
Hours after USA TODAY revealed its investigation, the college suspended Tucker with out pay, pending a decision of the Title IX case.
“This step, suspending Mel Tucker without pay, is … necessary and appropriate for today’s circumstances,” Interim President Teresa Woodruff stated at a Sunday night press convention. “These actions are not taken lightly.”
USA TODAY usually doesn’t determine individuals who allege sexual harassment. Tracy agreed to be recognized and shared greater than 1,200 pages of case paperwork.
Title IX, the federal regulation banning intercourse discrimination in training, requires colleges to research allegations of sexual harassment that took place within the context of a college program or exercise. Such claims are inherently troublesome to adjudicate due to lots of the components at subject on this case: a scarcity of eyewitnesses and recordings, the passage of time and the thorniness of litigating consent.
Adding to the uncertainty, the establishment tasked with checking out the information is probably finest recognized for lacking repeated alternatives to cease some of the prolific sexual abusers in American historical past.
For practically twenty years, Michigan State leaders did not act on complaints towards Larry Nassar, the disgraced former U.S.A. Gymnastics and campus doctor accused of sexually assaulting greater than 300 feminine athletes below the guise of medical remedies. He has been sentenced to a minimal of 100 years in jail.
Amid its efforts to rebuild belief amongst college students, workers, alumni and the East Lansing group, Michigan State’s leaders should now resolve whether or not the face of its prestigious soccer program is responsible of sexually harassing one of many nation’s most influential advocates towards gender-based violence.
For some, how the college navigates the disaster will ship a transparent message about its dedication to progress.
“This goes beyond coach Tucker and Brenda Tracy,” stated Jennifer Gomez, a Boston University professor who researches the consequences of interpersonal trauma and violence. “What happens here has the potential to be very healing or very harmful for lots and lots and lots of other people.”
The assembly: Spartans coach, rape survivor forge skilled bond by means of shared mission
Tracy and Tucker met in August 2021 throughout her first go to to Michigan State, after a mutual acquaintance launched them.
Standing earlier than a packed auditorium within the Spartans’ soccer operations building, Tracy informed a gut-wrenching story of turning her ache into function twenty years after submitting a police report saying she had been gang-raped as a 24-year-old mom of two.
At the tip, she challenged the “good men” within the room to make use of their privilege and affect to teach themselves and name out dangerous habits.
By then she had delivered variations of the speech greater than 100 instances to no less than 40,000 athletes and coaches. Michigan State paid her a $10,000 talking charge.
Tucker was in his second season as head coach. A former University of Wisconsin-Madison defensive again, he had spent twenty years teaching defenses for 10 faculty and NFL groups earlier than touchdown the highest job on the University of Colorado in late 2018. Michigan State lured him away a 12 months later by doubling his wage.
Tucker and Tracy “hit it off” instantly, they’d each later inform the Title IX investigator. They bonded over their love of Jordan sneakers, cabinets of which lined Tucker’s workplace partitions.
Tucker had been moved by her speech, and he or she had been an enormous hit with gamers, he informed the investigator. They mentioned her coming again to campus sooner or later.
Tracy left East Lansing feeling she had discovered a champion in Tucker, she informed the investigator. He appeared engaged together with her trigger, main his gamers in signing her pledge to, amongst different issues, receive “ongoing, affirmative consent” earlier than participating in sexual acts with one other person.
Over the following 12 months, their assistants deliberate two extra visits to Michigan State for Tracy, emails, textual content messages, and itineraries present: the April 2022 spring sport the place Tracy and her nonprofit, Set The Expectation, could be honored on the jumbotron and a coaching that July with coaches and gamers.
During that point, the 2 additionally talked on the telephone no less than 27 instances, Tracy’s telephone payments present – a median of as soon as each two weeks for a half hour. They typically spoke at night time to accommodate their work schedules, they stated. They chatted about their jobs and finally extra private issues, similar to their households, psychological well being and every day lives.
They spoke most continuously in fall 2021, whereas Tucker was main Michigan State to a 11-2 document – its finest season in six years – and negotiating one of many richest teaching contracts of all time.
In November, Michigan State signed him to an unprecedented 10-year, $95 million deal that got here totally assured, even when it fired him for poor efficiency. The solely approach he may lose out on the money, the contract stated, was if he materially breached it, was convicted of a criminal offense or engaged in “conduct which, in the University’s reasonable judgment, would tend to bring public disrespect, contempt or ridicule on the University.”
It was round then that Tucker, who had been married for greater than twenty years, began turning into curious about Tracy romantically, they each informed the investigator.
Whether Tracy reciprocated is the place their accounts diverge.
The disputed name: ‘You’re touching your self?’
Tucker informed the investigator that he and Tracy developed a romantic connection and talked overtly about it.
They continuously made flirtatious feedback about one another’s seems and our bodies, Tucker stated. Tracy informed him she wished a “sugar daddy” who would pay her a month-to-month quantity to be his girlfriend, he stated, and that she could be “all over” him if he wasn’t married.
Tucker stated they’d acknowledged their mutual want for a romance however agreed it could be “too messy” due to his marriage and the bodily distance between them.
By distinction, Tracy informed the investigator that Tucker’s romantic curiosity in her was completely one-sided. She stated she got here to really feel he was much less curious about her trigger than in her.
Tucker messaged her pictures of herself that he had discovered on her Instagram web page, making feedback similar to, “This is the one,” or complimenting her eyes, Tracy stated. Tucker additionally despatched her two presents – a pair of Jordans and $200 in money by means of Venmo – and donated $2,500 to her nonprofit.
Once, Tucker referred to as Tracy by way of FaceTime. He was in mattress, shirtless. He talked about his sad marriage, describing himself as “more or less single.” Then, throughout a Nov. 9, 2021, name, she stated he requested her, “If I wasn’t a football coach and if I wasn’t married, would you date me?”
Tracy stated she responded that she wouldn’t as a result of they labored collectively – considered one of a number of instances she recalled making an attempt to set boundaries. She stated she made clear to Tucker on a Dec. 1 name that they’d solely be pals, and he appeared to agree.
Then, after the spring sport, Tucker referred to as her 4 instances, telephone information present. Tracy stated he repeatedly requested her to satisfy him alone, with out her assistant, and even urged slipping into her resort by means of a again door so nobody would see him. She stated no.
Twelve days later got here the decision.
Tracy was in her home workplace in Oregon. Tucker, who was in a resort in Florida, referred to as her at 12:39 a.m. EST, telephone information present. The name lasted 36 minutes.
According to Tucker, he turned aroused when Tracy made a remark about needing to hit the health club extra to look higher with out garments on. They then mentioned how having telephone intercourse may complicate their relationship, he stated, however Tracy urged as soon as could be innocent and he agreed.
“Unequivocally, there’s no doubt about it,” Tucker informed the investigator, case paperwork present. “She was the one who said we’ll do it.”
Tracy denies all of that. The name began off regular, she stated. But when she despatched Tucker a photograph of them collectively from the spring sport, she stated he responded by commenting on her buttocks and calling himself an “ass man.”
She remembered Tucker’s voice getting deeper and weirder as he continued speaking about her buttocks. She requested him what he was doing, and he stated he had a “hard dick” and was touching himself.
“You’re touching yourself?” Tracy requested, based on the investigation report. Tucker responded, “Yes.”
Tracy stated she thought to herself, “Oh my god, that is occurring, and I can’t cease it.” In the second, she stated, it didn’t happen to her to hold up. Eventually she stated one thing alongside the strains of, “If you do this, I don’t ever want to hear about it, we are only friends, that’s it.”
When he completed, Tracy stated, Tucker informed her, “Thank you, good night, sweetheart.” She responded, “Yeah,” and he hung up.
Then she sat at her desk for some time, watching her telephone and crying.
The aftermath: Perceived risk prompts Tracy to file sexual harassment grievance
Three months handed between the decision and the following time Tracy and Tucker spoke.
At first, Tracy tried to fake to herself that nothing had occurred. Her partnership with the varsity was paramount and he or she centered on that.
Tucker, nonetheless, was not responding to her textual content messages. And he abruptly canceled her in-person coaching, deliberate for July 25, three days earlier than it was imagined to take place. A group staffer informed her they’d double-booked, however Tracy believed she knew the true motive.
When Tracy lastly obtained Tucker on the telephone a couple of week later, he was offended, she stated, accusing her and her assistant of gossiping about his marital issues.
Tracy recalled that Tucker made feedback similar to, “I can’t trust you,” “If you say anything about this, I’ll hear about it,” and “I’ll be fine, it’s you that I am worried about.” She seen it as a risk to destroy her repute if she spoke out about him.
Tucker at one level informed her he had carried out nothing unsuitable. According to Tracy, she began to say, “Well, something…” referring to his masturbation, and Tucker interrupted, saying, “But nothing happened.”
Tucker recalled the Aug. 2 telephone name a lot otherwise. He informed the investigator that Tracy apologized to him for discussing his marriage together with her assistant, and he accepted. Although they ended the decision on good phrases and mentioned suspending her go to till subsequent 12 months, Tucker stated he had misplaced belief in Tracy.
The coaching was by no means rescheduled, and so they by no means spoke once more.
Tracy initially stayed quiet about Tucker for the sake of her profession, she stated. Ultimately, she determined that if she let it slide, she wouldn’t be the person she claimed to be – the one who encourages individuals to talk up about sexual misconduct and maintain others accountable.
She filed her grievance in December – eight months after the decision. In dry and bureaucratic language, the document of that grievance begins: “The specific allegations of prohibited conduct against Respondent are as follows …” A notification was delivered to Tucker the next day.
Tucker was “absolutely shocked,” he would inform the college’s investigator. In subsequent correspondence, he and his lawyer urged Tracy’s motive: She held a vendetta towards Spartans athletics due to its historical past of sexual misconduct scandals and falsely accused him for monetary acquire.
“To say that I have learned from this situation is an understatement,” Tucker wrote in a letter to the investigator on March 22. “I will never again allow myself to be duped by kindness.”
The investigation: Tucker strikes to halt case as investigator will get to work
The college tapped Rebecca Leitman Veidlinger, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Title IX lawyer, to conduct the investigation.
A former Indiana intercourse crimes prosecutor who now heads a non-public observe, she additionally beforehand labored within the Title IX places of work at Michigan State and the University of Michigan.
Veidlinger began her investigation in January by interviewing Tracy and 6 individuals she had recognized as witnesses, together with three of Tucker’s assistants who had been concerned in coordinating and canceling her campus visits.
Tracy’s different three witnesses – her assistant, therapist and lawyer – informed Veidlinger {that a} distraught Tracy had disclosed the state of affairs to them in early August, inside days of her ultimate telephone name with Tucker.
Jacqueline Swanson, Tracy’s lawyer who can also be her pal, turned over a replica of the notes she took from their dialog on a yellow authorized pad.
Ahlan Alvarado, Tracy’s assistant and finest pal who had attended the April 2022 spring sport, stated she had been with Tracy of their resort after the sport when Tucker repeatedly referred to as Tracy asking to satisfy her alone.
Alvarado stated Tracy had informed her beforehand that Tucker “liked” her and it may turn into an issue. She shared a screenshot of a Dec. 2 textual content message through which Tracy informed her she had simply spoken with Tucker, who had agreed they may solely be pals.
“I’m glad it didn’t get weird,” Tracy wrote.
Tracy supplied telephone payments and emails that corroborated her timeline of occasions and confirmed Tucker had been calling her from his private cellphone.
Although Veidlinger had interviewed all six of Tracy’s witnesses earlier than the tip of January, Tucker didn’t comply with be interviewed till late March. In the intervening weeks, he and his lawyer, Jennifer Belveal, tried to cease the investigation.
Tracy stated Belveal twice contacted her lawyer, Karen Truszkowski, proposing a settlement settlement. Tracy stated no.
Tucker and Belveal additionally urged Michigan State to drop Tracy’s grievance. In January, they despatched a 12-page letter to the varsity arguing it lacked jurisdiction to research Tucker’s “purely personal” relationship with Tracy.
They later commissioned Brett Sokolow, board chairman and co-founder of the Association of Title IX Administrators, to put in writing an “expert witness” report asserting that policing workers’ “off duty” actions would set a harmful authorized precedent.
“Can an employee never have phone sex?” Sokolow wrote. “How far does MSU intend to go in policing the private conduct of its employees, and how does it expect its 20,000+ employees to react when they find out that they no longer have private lives outside the reach of their employer?”
Michigan State was not persuaded. The alleged conduct could be lined by faculty coverage, it concluded, as a result of it took place within the context of Tracy’s work as a vendor for the varsity and affected their ongoing business relationship.
The case would go ahead.
The findings: Records refute Tucker’s story; his lawyer alleges bias
Tucker sat down for his interview on March 22.
He stated he wished to be clear and set the document straight. But Veidlinger would be aware some key inconsistencies.
For occasion, Tucker claimed he had made the telephone intercourse name from home in East Lansing – not in a Florida resort. He had simply returned from a visit to Florida, he stated, the place he had been doing charity work unrelated to his employment with the varsity.
Veidlinger, nonetheless, had obtained paperwork exhibiting Tucker had, the truth is, been in Naples, Florida, the day of the decision – attending the Greg Montgomery Foundation Golf Outing on the varsity’s dime.
An expense report Tucker submitted to Michigan State for his resort and meal prices confirmed the journey’s function was “administrative” and didn’t contain any private journey. The prices had been paid by the Spartan Fund, the athletic division’s fundraising arm; he had flown to Florida on a donor’s non-public airplane.
Tucker informed Veidlinger he had canceled Tracy’s July 25 in-person coaching as a result of his new psychological conditioning coach, Ben Newman, wanted to implement a brand new program. But Veidlinger would receive information from the varsity exhibiting Newman had been assembly weekly with the group since early June and didn’t maintain any conferences between July 15 and 28.
During the interview, Tucker additionally made an explosive new allegation: He stated his affiliate had informed him that famend ESPN investigative reporter Paula Lavigne was investigating the veracity of the gang-rape story on the coronary heart of Tracy’s public persona. The data, Tucker stated, made him query how Tracy “goes about her business.”
Veidlinger didn’t deal with this allegation in her report, however Lavigne denied the allegation.
“Neither (Tracy’s) organization nor Tracy is or has been the target of any investigative reporting,” Lavigne stated in an announcement to USA TODAY. “I’m perplexed that Mel Tucker would respond to a complaint of sexual harassment by involving me or ESPN.”
Tucker didn’t determine any witnesses who may assist his model of occasions, together with his affiliate, whom he stated he had promised anonymity. That similar affiliate, Tucker stated, informed him that Alvarado, Tracy’s assistant, had been gossiping about his marriage – a declare Alvarado denied.
Veidlinger delivered her ultimate 106-page investigation report in July.
Along the best way, she had discovered that one probably wealthy supply of proof was lacking: Both Tracy and Tucker had deleted their textual content messages with one another. Tucker would inform her that he deletes his messages repeatedly as a result of he receives so many; Tracy stated she did so in a panic after their final telephone name, feeling she wanted to chop all ties with him.
Per Title IX and faculty coverage, Veidlinger didn’t subject a discovering of fault in her ultimate report, however as a substitute summarized the information and referred the case for a listening to.
At the listening to, deliberate for October, either side could have the chance to current proof and make arguments. Another exterior Title IX lawyer employed by the varsity will then resolve whether or not the proof reveals that Tucker probably violated faculty guidelines.
Among the witnesses who will probably be lacking from Tracy’s witness record is her assistant and finest pal, Alvarado. She died in a automotive accident in June.
Meanwhile, Belveal argued Alvarado’s demise “presents yet another reason that this case should be dismissed.”
Letters Belveal despatched Veidlinger all through the case accuse her of bias towards Tucker – and males extra broadly.
One letter in May contained a listing of 170 perceived issues with Veidlinger’s draft report and questions she ought to have requested Tracy and her witnesses. They included why Tracy had not returned Tucker’s presents, why she had given him her Venmo username and what opinions she held about Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo, former soccer coach Mark Dantonio and former president John Engler, all of whom had been related to previous sexual misconduct controversies.
A good course of, Belveal wrote, would expose Tracy’s allegations as “nothing more than another agenda-driven attempt … to defame Respondent and the University.”
“We request that the investigation be reopened,” Belveal wrote, “that each of the questions be asked of the appropriate witnesses, that jurisdiction be reassessed, and that the matter be dismissed.”
Kenny Jacoby is an investigative reporter for USA TODAY overlaying sexual harassment and violence and Title IX. Contact him by electronic mail at [email protected] or comply with him on X @kennyjacoby.
