EAST LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The accusations keep piling up for Michigan State University as it continues to navigate the legal fallout from the sexual harassment scandal of head football coach Mel Tucker.
A new lawsuit.
A lawsuit filed against the East Lansing school suggests Tucker sexually abused university employees and staff, including his personal assistant. Gannett Co. is suing MSU for redacting information in a public records request about a woman that USA Today reporters believe is “another possible victim of Tucker’s sexual misconduct.”
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USA Today filed a public records request for the employment records of Tucker’s former personal assistant; the lawsuit claims MSU left pages blank and heavily redacted other portions. The lawsuit claims MSU cited “generic, statutory exceptions.” An attorney for USA today said that MSU is a public university and that it has a duty to release public information.
Tucker’s 2023 firing.
The lawsuit stems from the reason MSU fired Tucker in September 2023. A Title IX investigation that started in December 2022 found Tucker made sexual comments and masturbated on the phone with rape survivor and activist Brenda Tracy. She’d worked with MSU’s football team and Tucker to help change the culture there after the Larry Nassar scandal. Tracy admits the two struck up a friendship; Tucker claims the phone call in question was “consensual.”
Michigan News Source reached out to MSU spokesperson Emily Gerkin Guerrant, who said the university has no comment on the pending lawsuit. However, she did say “If any allegations surrounding a MSU employee regarding relationship violence or sexual misconduct behavior is brought forward, it would be referred to the appropriate investigatory agencies and given due diligence.”
MSU and the Larry Nassar scandal.
This isn’t the first time MSU has withheld documents. The Board of Trustees withheld 6,000 pages of documents from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for several years during her investigation of the Nasser scandal.
Since his firing, Tucker has countersued and claimed MSU fired him because of his race. His wife, Jo Ellyn Tucker, filed for divorce and accuses her estranged husband of pulling money from their joint funds to pay for his ongoing legal fees.
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