(WXYZ) — Michigan State University announced Sunday that they have suspended head football coach Mel Tucker without pay amid a sexual harassment investigation.
“The university’s formal conclusion of the investigation will occur once the hearing and final decision processes are complete,” said Alan Haller, MSU's athletic director.
Haller confirmed that Harlon Barnett will act as interim head coach and Mark Dantonio will act as an associate head coach.
A report first published overnight by USA Today said Tucker is being investigated for allegations of sexual harassment; the accuser is reportedly Brenda Tracy, who is a rape survivor who works to educate athletes about sexual assault and harassment.
USA Today reports that a Title IX investigation is happening into a phone call on April 28, 2022, where Tracy alleges Tucker made sexual comments about her and then masturbated on the phone without her consent.
“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,” Tracy said to USA Today. “It’s like he sought me out just to betray me.”
Haller said at today's press conference that upon receiving the reports from Tracy on the incident, MSU's Office of Civil Rights immediately reviewed them and commenced a subsequent investigation, per university protocol, using an outside third-party investigator. He also confirmed he was aware of the report in late December.
An MSU spokesperson confirmed to 7 Action News that MSU leadership did not know the contents of the complaint until USA Today's reporting this weekend.
In a statement to the Title IX investigator, obtained by USA Today, Tucker said he did masturbate on the call but then said he and Tracy had consensual "phone sex."
According to USA Today, Tucker wrote in a letter to the Title IX investigator, “Ms. Tracy’s distortion of our mutually consensual and intimate relationship into allegations of sexual exploitation has really affected me. 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.”
Tucker is one of the highest-paid coaches in college football and signed a 10-year, $95 million contract with guaranteed money in 2021. He is owed the money even if fired for poor performance, but reports say the only way he wouldn't get the money is if he was convicted of a crime or engaged in conduct "in the University's reasonable judgment, would tend to bring public disrespect, contempt, or ridicule upon the University."
MSU says the Title IX investigation was completed in July. The university reportedly hired Rebecca Leitman Veidlinger, who is from Ann Arbor and specializes in Title IX investigations.
According to the university, a Title IX hearing is scheduled for Oct. 5-6.
USA Today reports Tracy had previously visited the university twice — once in August 2021 and again in April 2022 — to speak to the team about sexual misconduct.
“I decided to enroll in Michigan State and I was pretty happy for now and then I hear about another coach and another scenario where a woman’s voice has been silenced for so long," said Rosie Friedman, an MSU freshman.
This report comes just days after survivors of Dr. Larry Nassar asked the university's board of trustees to release thousands of documents about the scandal.
“I think they should’ve been clear about this in the beginning. It just raises so many questions, like it’s basically just a repeat of history like they did with Larry Nassar," said Riley Roman, an MSU senior. "They weren't communicating that either.”
Nassar, a former doctor at the university and a doctor for USA Gymnastics, was convicted of sexually assaulting hundreds of girls and women. He was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.
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