In December 2022, Brenda Tracy made the first accusation of sexual assault against Mel Tucker.
Mel Tucker, a former football coach at Michigan State, and Brenda Tracy
According to court documents, anti-sexual violence activist Brenda Tracy, who accused former Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker of sexual harassment, intends to sue Tucker and the university’s board of trustees for $75 million, citing Tucker for “damaging her personal and professional reputations.”
According to Kim Kozlowski of The Detroit News, Trace filed two letters with the Michigan Court of Claims this week stating her intention to suit on grounds of carelessness, breach of contract, and Title IX violations.
According to court records, Tracy informed Michigan State officials about Tucker’s wrongdoings, and the university neglected to keep her identity private while looking into her accusations. According to the documents, Tucker was only suspended and then fired by the institution when the public learned of the misbehavior charges against him.
Tracy has filed two lawsuits: one on her own behalf and the other on behalf of Set The Expectation, the nonprofit organization she created in 2017 to advocate against sexual assault.
Tracy reported to Michigan State authorities in December 2022 that Tucker had made inappropriate sexual remarks about her and had masturbated “for several minutes” during a phone call in April of the previous year. Even after Michigan State fired Tucker for cause in September 2023, Tucker insisted the two had “consensual phone sex” and angrily rejected the accusations leveled against him.
Tracy, a survivor of gang-related sexual assault, started touring the nation in 2016 to tell her experience to college football teams. She is trying to engage with young men and their coaches to find a way to reduce the incidence of sexual assault and other forms of interpersonal violence on college campuses and beyond. In autumn 2022, Tracy spoke to the Spartans in East Lansing, which led to their first meeting.
