Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker, who was suspended pending an investigation into sexual harassment, has issued a public letter defending himself and saying that anti-rape activist Brenda Tracy was a willing participant in the sexual content of their phone call.
Tucker was accused of masturbating and saying inappropriate things on the phone call with Tracy and she has alleged sexual harassment. Tracy filed her complaint in Dec., triggering a Title IX investigation into the April 26, 2022, phone conversation.
Tracy delivered a “tearful” interview to investigators, saying she could “hear [Tucker] masturbating, including ‘every stroke.’ She could hear the noise of some kind of lubrication being used. [Tracy] said it was ‘so loud and gross.’ She could hear [Tucker] ‘moaning and groaning.’ [Tracy] ‘kind of froze’ in the moment at first.”
The woman also claimed that the masturbation over the phone triggered her feelings of terror from a sexual assault she suffered years ago.
But with a letter through his attorney, Tucker is strongly denying there was any harassment at all.
“Brenda Tracy’s allegations of harassment are completely false,” Tucker wrote, according to Yahoo Sports. “The proceedings initiated by Ms. Tracy are devoid of any semblance of fairness for any matter of this importance, and the University’s ‘hearing’ scheduled for October 5-6 is so flawed that there is no other opportunity for the truth to come out.”
Tucker’s statement comes on the heels of Mich. Gov. Gretchen Witmer’s criticism of the university for being slow to suspend Tracy over the incident.
Inbox: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issues a statement on the sexual harassment investigation into MSU Football coach Mel Tucker. pic.twitter.com/UnKPan3SQq
— Simon D. Schuster (@Simon_Schuster) September 11, 2023
Witmer claimed she was “shocked” and “disappointed” and added, “I want answers.”
“We deserve to know when the university knew about these allegations and why they made the decisions they did. We need to ensure that one of our state’s flagship universities, one that carries so much weight around the world, is learning from the past and not recreating it,” Witmer exclaimed.
But, Tracy blasted back at the critics and said no harassment took place because he and Tracy had a “mutual friendship that grew into an intimate, adult relationship.”
“While I am saddened by Ms. Tracy’s disclosure of the sensitive nature of this call, let me be perfectly clear — it was an entirely mutual private event between two adults living at opposite ends of the country,” Tucker said in his public letter. “She initiated the discussion that night, sent me a provocative picture of the two of us together, suggested what she may look like without clothes, and never once during the 36 minutes did she object in any manner, much less hang up the phone.”
Tucker added that he and Tracy had many similar calls.
Head coach Mel Tucker of the Michigan State Spartans reacts before the game against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Beaver Stadium on November 26, 2022, in State College, Pennsylvania. (Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
“Ms. Tracy and I engaged in dozens of calls throughout fall 2021 and winter 2022, many of which she initiated and which occurred late at night,” Tucker said in his letter. “Ms. Tracy encouraged our personal relationship by inviting and accepting gifts from me.”
Tucker is a coach with a winning record and is one of the highest-paid coaches in college football, with a $ 95 million contract earned after he took the Spartans to win the Peach Bowl in 2021.
He will sacrifice the remaining $77 million on his contract if he is fired with cause.
Tucker also blasted the Title IX investigation and claimed its primary purpose was to fire him to save the university a lot of cash.
“The investigation has not been fair or unbiased,” Tucker said. “I can only conclude that their is an ulterior motive designed to terminate my contract based on some other factor such as a desire to avoid [Larry] Nasser taint, or my race or gender.”
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