Mel Tucker's closing winter as Michigan State College head soccer coach was a busy one.
He flew across the nation by personal jet at the least 17 instances, paperwork present, en path to signing one of many group's greatest recruiting courses in a decade.
He attended at the least 4 Spartans males's basketball video games, together with one at Madison Sq. Backyard in New York Metropolis, the place Twitter customers captured him on the court docket, sporting a big Spartan Dawgs for Life medallion and holding a drink in a clear plastic glass.
He additionally gave a number of on-camera interviews to the media.
The whole time behind the scenes, Tucker claimed to be in such an excessive state of psychological anguish that he couldn’t communicate to the surface legal professional investigating him for sexual harassment, emails obtained by USA TODAY present.
All through the campus case introduced by rape survivor and sexual violence activist Brenda Tracy, a saleswoman he had employed to talk to his gamers about sexual violence prevention, Tucker repeatedly claimed critical medical situation left him prevented participation. Her well being issues, she claimed, required weeks-long delays within the case, whereas he continued to gather a $750,000 month-to-month paycheck.
However Tucker's actions on the time of these emails — a part of a greater than 1,000-page file that MSU has stored out of the general public eye — name into query the legitimacy of these claims.
Underneath Michigan's Freedom of Info Act, the file is meant to be open to the general public as soon as the case is over. However in response to a Jan. 16 information request from USA TODAY, MSU stated this week it will cost the information group at the least $5,400 for the roughly 160 hours it will take to assessment and redact personal data from the information. That course of, the varsity stated, would take 51 weeks.
USA TODAY obtained the file immediately from Tracy. He has make clear many essential features of the case that led to Tucker's dismissal by means of particulars contained in intensive written reviews by the investigator, listening to officer and appeals officer, interview summaries, and a whole lot of pages of proof. They embody correspondence between Tucker's legal professional and college officers and documentary proof.
The information additionally go a great distance towards fixing some lingering mysteries.
They supply perception into MSU's response to Tucker's numerous well being claims, which helps clarify why the case dragged on so lengthy. Though MSU's sexual harassment coverage says circumstances should usually be accomplished inside six months of submitting a proper criticism, the case towards Tucker lasted greater than a yr.
Tucker's claims about well being issues put MSU between a rock and a tough place, stated David Ring, a Los Angeles-based legal professional who represents victims of sexual abuse. Even when the investigator believed she was fabricating a medical situation to hinder the investigation, if she had gone forward with out interviewing him, she may have created a notion of unfair therapy, a notion Tucker may later have used towards the varsity.
Regardless, Tucker's questionable well being declare additional damages his credibility within the court docket of public opinion, Ring informed USA TODAY.
“It's like rolling your eyes for an individual to say, 'I'm so distraught there's no approach I can take part in an interview,' and on the identical time they're making public appearances, touring, giving interviews. ”Ring stated.
Michigan State declined to remark for this story. Tucker and his legal professional, Jennifer Belveal, didn’t return messages looking for remark.
Tucker first invoked psychological well being claims in January 2023, emails present, three weeks after Tracy filed a criticism with MSU's Title IX workplace. Tracy's criticism alleged that Tucker masturbated and made sexual feedback with out her consent throughout a cellphone name in April 2022.
The college's exterior investigator, Rebecca Leitman Veidlinger, had interviewed Tracy and the six witnesses within the case in late January 2023, however not Tucker. Belveal informed Veidlinger that Tucker wanted to postpone her interview indefinitely as a consequence of her excessive psychological misery.
Veidlinger responded that Tucker may request lodging by means of the state of Michigan's incapacity workplace, emails present. However Tucker doesn't appear to have performed so. On February three, Belveal wrote that Tucker's subsequent availability could be in nearly two months, on the final day of March. He lastly confirmed up for an interview on March 22, 2023.
Tucker once more invoked a well being difficulty the next September, after Tracy went public along with her allegations in a USA TODAY investigation. MSU suspended Tucker with out pay hours after the information broke, then determined to fireplace him for trigger every week later.
In a Sept. 25 letter to athletic director Alan Haller, Tucker argued that MSU couldn’t hearth him as a result of he had requested medical depart underneath the Household and Medical Go away Act for a “critical well being situation” days earlier than MSU knowledgeable him of his intention to fireplace him. It's unclear if that situation is the psychological anguish he cited in January.
MSU fired Tucker anyway on September 26, writing off the roughly $80 million remaining on his file contract.
A well being situation additionally prevented Tucker from collaborating within the listening to for the sexual harassment case on Oct. 5, Belveal wrote in a Sept. 20 letter to the varsity's Title IX workplace requesting one other delay.
Katie Bylenga, the college's listening to administrator, responded that Tucker would wish to submit documentation of the situation to point out good trigger for the delay. Belveal didn’t accomplish that, information present, and Tucker didn’t attend the listening to.
Belveal finally submitted a health care provider's be aware on Tucker's behalf dated Oct. 27, three weeks after the listening to. By then, the college's listening to officer had already issued his choice, concluding that Tucker sexually harassed and exploited Tracy on quite a few events throughout their year-long enterprise relationship.
Tucker's attraction of the findings in November included the physician's be aware, addressed to Belveal. He stated Tucker had been admitted for therapy on September 15, with an anticipated discharge date of October 29. The black packing containers cowl the physician's final identify: “Dr. James [REDACTED]MD” – title and identify of the therapy middle.
“Attributable to his medical sicknesses and the required therapy throughout this time, Mr. Tucker was unable to take care of any authorized or administrative issues,” the be aware stated. “Moreover, the stress and psychological and emotional influence of participating in these issues would doubtless exacerbate his sickness.”
The case formally ended on Jan. 11, when the varsity's exterior assessment officer denied Tucker's attraction and concluded that the findings have been cheap underneath the details. The 24-page choice doesn’t point out any medical situations.
Kenny Jacoby is a USA TODAY investigative reporter overlaying sexual misconduct and Title IX. Contact him by e mail at kjacoby@usatoday.com or comply with him on X @kennyjacoby.