Mel Tucker won't participate in harassment hearing due to 'serious medical condition'
LANSING — Former Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker's attorney told university leaders Thursday he was unable to participate in a key hearing over sexual harassment allegations because of a "serious medical condition."
His attorney, Jennifer Belveal, in the letter to President Teresa Woodruff and the Board of Trustees also said her firm had uncovered new evidence including text messages from accuser Brenda Tracy that "undermines MSU’s decision to terminate Mr. Tucker, and further confirms that the underlying “investigation” failed to meet minimal due diligence standards — at Mr. Tucker’s expense."
The hearing, set to begin Thursday before Virginia-based attorney Amanda Norris Ames, is a pivotal moment in the campus disciplinary proceeding involving Tucker, who was fired last week after USA TODAY reported details of an investigation by the university’s Title IX office. He is accused by prominent national rape survivor and activist Brenda Tracy. Tracy alleges Tucker pursued her romantically for months after hiring her to speak to his players about sexual violence. His pursuit culminated in an April 2022 phone call, during which her complaint says he made sexual comments and masturbated without her consent. Tucker has said he and Tracy had a romantic relationship and that the call was consensual phone sex.
Belveal argues that Tracy's text messages with her now late friend Ahlan Alvarado show she had a personal relationship with Tucker that was consensual at the same time she had a similar relationship with at least one other married athletic coach, that a new witness has come forward to say that the phone sex was consensual and that Tracy attempted to manipulate MSU for her own financial benefit.
"We detail some of this new evidence below, although it is too voluminous to capture in a single letter. (We have received approximately 20,000 new communications or documents involving Ms. Tracy.)," Belveal wrote. "This evidence completely contradicts Ms. Tracy’s claims and suggest that she manipulated a key witness, the University, Mr. Tucker, and the public. You should know that Ms. Tracy allegedly deleted key evidence and provided only self-serving excerpts to OIE to sustain a claim of “harassment” that MSU never should have been investigating in the first place. Ms. Tracy pulled the wool over the University’s eyes, and maligned Mr. Tucker’s reputation for personal gain."
Alvarado, Tracy’s longtime friend and booking assistant, provided MSU's investigator with emails and text messages that corroborated aspects of Tracy’s version of events and refuted aspects of Tucker’s. She was killed in a car crash in June.
Tucker was initially suspended without pay but was subsequently fired with about $80 million remaining on a 10-year, $95 million contract.
This story will be updated.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Mel Tucker has 'medical condition,' won't participate in hearing
