Fired Michigan State coach Tucker offered ‘remorseful’ apology to sex accuser | Exclusive

Fired Michigan State coach Tucker offered 'remorseful' apology to sex accuser Exclusive.

Key points

• The first offer came in January 2023 – one month after Tracy filed her complaint with Michigan State's Title IX office.
• Tracy filed a complaint against him with Michigan State's Title IX office in December 2022, prompting the school to investigate.
• Michigan State fired Tucker for cause in October 2023, shortly after Tracy went public with her allegations in a USA TODAY article.
• Tucker's second offer came on March 15, 2023 – one week before his scheduled interview with Veidlinger.
• In his investigative interview on March 22, 2023, Tucker insisted that he and Tracy had consensual, mutual phone sex.

Fired Michigan State coach Tucker offered 'remorseful' apology to sex accuser Exclusive. Kenny Jacoby USA TODAY. Mel Tucker apologizes to Brenda Tracy in sexual harassment case.

Former Michigan State University football coach Mel Tucker offered Brenda Tracy an apology during private settlement negotiations.

Former Michigan State University head football coach Mel Tucker privately acknowledged engaging in inappropriate behavior toward the woman who accused him of sexual harassment before mounting a smear campaign against her, confidential settlement proposals obtained exclusively by USA TODAY show.

Tucker, who three years ago was one of college sports' highest-paid men, fell from grace after Brenda Tracy, a rape survivor and public speaker he had hired to train his football team regarding sexual harassment, accused him of masturbating during a phone call without her consent. Tucker has maintained he and Tracy had consensual phone sex.

Tracy filed a complaint against him with Michigan State's Title IX office in December 2022, prompting the school to investigate. Despite aggressively fighting the allegations – first in campus proceedings and afterwards publicly – Tucker sent Tracy two settlement offers in January and March 2023 that struck a much different tone.

In one offer, Tucker informed Tracy that he recognized his conduct was offensive and a "colossal example of poor judgment." He offered her an apology, capital, to undergo sexual harassment training – even to purchase a national ad highlighting the problem of sexual harassment – if she dropped her complaint.

"I cannot express how sincerely remorseful Mel is that his conduct offended Ms. Tracy, " his attorney, Jennifer Belveal, wrote in a March 15, 2023, letter to Tracy's attorney. "While he can understand now why Ms. Tracy views his conduct as inappropriate, Mel refuses to believe that Ms. Tracy really wants to create a public spectacle that will have catastrophic implications on his life (and hers)." Tracy. This person rejected both offers, subsequently shared them with USA TODAY.

Tucker and Belveal did not return phone messages seeking comment. Andrew Abood, the Michigan attorney who at present represents Tucker, stated he disagrees that the offers show Tucker admitted to inappropriate conduct. Michigan State's hearings are unfair, he remarked, and the fact that Tracy issued the offers after losing to Tucker in court "isn't a coincidence."

"It should be patently obvious that she should have taken the offer which is significantly more, in my opinion, than what she was ever entitled to, " Abood remarked in an emailed statement. "And trying to resolve a claim only makes common sense, given MSU's history."

Notably, the settlement offers, which have not been previously documented, illuminate the gaps between private negotiations, institutional accountability and courtroom outcomes. They demonstrate how a person can be discovered at fault for sexual misconduct in a lengthy campus investigation and lose his job but still defeat his accuser in court – to the point that she now owes him capital.

Michigan State fired Tucker for cause in October 2023, shortly after Tracy went public with her allegations in a USA TODAY article. The school's investigation, conducted by multiple outside law firms, discovered Tucker responsible for sexually harassing and exploiting Tracy on multiple occasions during their yearlong business partnership.

Tracy and her business entities then filed two state civil court lawsuits against Tucker and a federal civil lawsuit against Michigan State. Judges have dismissed all those claims. And a state judge in January ordered Tracy and her attorney, Karen Truszkowski, to pay up to $180, 000 of Tucker's attorney fees, partly due to procedural missteps by Truszkowski.

Truszkowski defended her handling of the lawsuits, saying that the judges' expectations of what she could prove without discovery were "unreasonable." A hearing set for Oct. 28 in Ingham County Circuit Court will determine the exact amount that Tracy and Truszkowski owe Tucker.

"It has been extremely frustrating to see all the lies that have been said about me, knowing all this time he's admitted to harming me and even offered me money, " Tracy informed USA TODAY. "The letter completely contradicts the idea that I set him up or filed a false report."

It is not uncommon for individuals accused of sexual misconduct to offer to apologize, pay capital or undergo training in private settlement negotiations, especially in high-profile cases, Truszkowski informed USA TODAY.

"Their admission of remorse – they're hoping that's going to get them off the hook, " she remarked. "Then when it doesn't, they reverse course."

In practice, the concessions Tucker created in his proposals, she stated, backing Tracy's account.

"He apologizes, then he contradicts himself later, " she remarked. "If it's consensual, then why are you apologizing?" The terms of Mel Tucker's settlement offer.

Tucker's offers to Tracy came while his attorney was trying desperately to avoid him sitting for an interview with Rebecca Veidlinger, the university's outside investigator.

Meanwhile, the first offer came in January 2023 – one month after Tracy filed her complaint with Michigan State's Title IX office.

He offered to meet face to face and pay her $25, 000.

In exchange, Tracy would drop her complaint and continue training the Michigan State football team regarding sexual violence. She would additionally tell the university that continuing its investigation would negatively affect her; that the incident was a misunderstanding; and that Tucker is not a threat of any kind to the university.

"Ms. Tracy will not consider further settlement discussions or a session with Coach Tucker until after Rebecca completes her investigation, " Truszkowski replied in a Jan. 23, 2023, email.

Belveal, his attorney, had delayed the interview for more than two months, citing scheduling conflicts. Meanwhile, she submitted a 13-page legal brief urging the school to drop its investigation due to lack of jurisdiction. The university pressed on.

Belveal knew that if Veidlinger completed her investigation, then Michigan State's Board of Trustees would be notified of Tracy's allegations. If no investigation report was issued, Veidlinger informed her in an email that January, then the board would not find out.

In a last-ditch effort to derail the investigation, Tucker upped his offer to Tracy. He debuted a new strategy: Remorse.

"As I have consistently stated, based on the Complaint, Mel may have misread the situation, but he does not deny their personal connection, " Belveal wrote. "Unless we can come to a resolution that includes recognizing that his conduct was not intentionally harmful, but a colossal example of poor judgment, both parties will lose the ability to control the outcome."

Under the new proposal, Tucker would pay Tracy a minimum financial settlement as part of a binding mediation with a high-low dollar amount. He would meet with her to "personally express his remorse for hurting Ms. Tracy, so that she can look him in the eye and know he is really sorry for their clear misunderstanding."

Additionally, Tucker would undergo one-on-one sexual harassment training; purchase an anonymous concerning sexual harassment in a national publication; donate to Tracy's charity; and recommend that she continue training Michigan State athletes. Tracy, again, remarked no. That's when Tucker went on offense.

In his investigative interview on March 22, 2023, Tucker insisted that he and Tracy had consensual, mutual phone sex. They both participated, he remarked – and it was her idea.

"Unequivocally, there's no doubt about it, " Tucker remarked, according to Veidlinger's notes. "She was the one who said we'll do it this one time."

After Tracy went public with her allegations in USA TODAY, Tucker issued a series of press releases in which he accused Tracy of "plotting" for months to take his funds, manipulating a key witness in the campus case and trying to delete evidence from her late best friend and business partner's computer "while the supposed friend lay dying in a hospital."

Tucker published hundreds of text messages between Tracy and the deceased friend, saying they proved that Tracy falsely accused him and "made a career out of misleading and manipulating people." He applied the messages to out Tracy's prior romantic relationship with a basketball coach, framing it as evidence that she dated men in her field.

That Tucker expressed remorse in settlement discussions is unsurprising, remarked Iliana Konidaris, a New York-based attorney who represents victims of gender-based discrimination and violence.

Attorneys may calculate that doing so in a confidential setting could support the discussions go positively, she stated. Even if it became public, it would be unlikely to affect his chances of winning a lawsuit; settlement negotiations are generally inadmissible as evidence in court.

"It's smart lawyering to show contrition, " Konidaris remarked. "But when they say no to your settlement offers, then all bets are off and the gloves come off. You're not there to create amends anymore. The goal is to win."

Even when a victim has their perpetrator's concessions in writing, holding them accountable in court is notoriously tough, she stated – particularly when there is no allegation of physical harm. Holding institutions, especially schools, accountable for their employees' actions can be even harder.

Individuals cannot be held liable in court for violating Title IX, the federal law that bans sexual harassment in schools. And to win a Title IX case against a university, a plaintiff must prove that school authorities acted with "deliberate indifference" to their complaint, meaning they must have known concerning it and ignored it.

Even then, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 ruled that plaintiffs who win Title IX and other civil-rights cases can no longer recover damages for emotional distress. Since that ruling, the number of Title IX complaints the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has received has fallen by more than half – from 9, 493 in 2022 to 4, 307 in 2024.

In short, fired Michigan State coach Tucker offered 'remorseful' apology to sex accuser is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.