Sexual assault survivor advocate Brenda Tracy filed a federal lawsuit against Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees and two individual board members on June 3, alleging they harmed her and her livelihood by mishandling her sexual harassment complaint against former head football coach Mel Tucker.
Her 51-page lawsuit accuses the officials of violating their legal and ethical duties to keep Tracy’s identity confidential throughout the university’s investigation of her December 2022 sexual harassment complaint. It alleges that Trustees Rema Vassar and Dennis Denno likely caused her name to be leaked to news outlets and others during the investigation. Michigan State officials, Vassar and Denno did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit also says that university officials breached their duty of care by failing to address the onslaught of threats and harassment Tracy suffered after she ultimately went public with her story. In addition, the lawsuit says that board members knew or should have known that Tucker had behaved inappropriately with other women and presented a threat to Tracy and the campus community.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for seven counts, including breach of contract, misconduct in office, gross negligence and violating Tracy’s due process rights. She says she suffered psychological and emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, lost earnings and incurred additional expenses for medical and therapy treatments as a result.
“It’s taken a long time to get here, and I’ve been through a lot, but at some point I want to move forward with my life,” Tracy told USA TODAY. “I feel like this is an important step in doing that. I want the people who harmed me to be held accountable, and that’s more than just Mel Tucker.”
The lawsuit is one of several that have been filed in connection with the sexual misconduct scandal that led to the firing of one of the nation’s highest-paid coaches. Tracy in October sued Tucker in state court, alleging he defamed her by claiming they had developed a mutual romance.
Tucker, who has maintained that he and Tracy had a consensual sexual relationship, sued Michigan State in August 2024 for wrongful termination and defamation. The school fired him for cause weeks after the scandal erupted into public view in September 2023 and canceled roughly $80 million remaining on the record 10-year contract he had signed less than two years earlier.
At the crux of Tracy’s sexual harassment allegations is an April 2022 phone call between her and Tucker in which she says he masturbated without her consent. The call came eight months after Tucker hired Tracy, an established gang-rape survivor and educator, to speak to his players about sexual violence prevention.
Over the course of their yearlong business relationship, Tracy said that Tucker made a series of unwanted sexual advances, culminating in the April 2022 call. Tucker says that they had a flirtatious relationship, that Tracy told him she was looking for a “sugar daddy,” and that during the April 2022 call they engaged in a one-time instance of mutual phone sex.
Michigan State’s Title IX office completed its investigation into Tracy’s complaint in October 2023, finding Tucker responsible for sexually harassing and exploiting Tracy multiple times before, during and after the now-infamous April 2022 phone call. The university in January 2024 denied Tucker’s appeal of the findings.