EAST LANSING, Mich. – The turmoil surrounding sexual harassment allegations against Michigan State head football coach Mel Tucker continues as his accuser, Brenda Tracy, issued a new statement through her attorney.
Tracy, on Tuesday (Sept. 12), claimed she had no intentions of making the story public.
“An outside party disclosed Brenda Tracy’s identity to local media, which led to the USA Today story. Brenda Tracy had no intention of publicly disclosing her identity. She was and continues to be committed to complying with and concluding the MSU internal investigative process.
She respected the process and chose not to go to the media to preserve the integrity of the process. After the investigation process was completed, we would have determined what, if any, further steps to take. Instead, her identity was disclosed without her knowledge or consent, warranting express actions to protect her.
Her choice to allow this process to proceed privately was taken away. Let me be patently clear: Brenda Tracy had no intenton of disclosing anything publicly until someone else violated her right to confidentiality.”
Karen Truszkowski Attorney for Brenda Tracy
MSU interim coach Harlan Barnett did not hesitate to discuss the cloud over MSU and Tucker.
“We got to all come together in this time of adversity, and we have to be unified,” said Barnett.
After introducing himself, Barnett said Michigan State University head football coach is a job he wanted but not under these circumstances.
“How I have been feeling personally is ‘Like this’ because of how it happened, you know what I mean,” Barnett said. “Being totally honest here, I wanted to be the head coach at MSU, but not in this way, obviously.”
A players-only meeting took place Sunday (Sept. 10) after the team learned that the coach they came there to play for was suspended, and serious allegations against him of sexual harassment brought by the very sex abuse victim rights advocate Tucker brought in to address his team.
Also, on Sunday, Barnett met with the team.
Local 4 asked if anyone on the team who came there to play for Tucker was hanging their head, and Barnett answered emphatically with a no as they were pushing forward.
“A couple of them were like when it first happened, was kind of like ‘What is going on,’ now they are back on solid ground, shaky at first, then on solid ground.”
Title IX attorneys told Local 4 that Athletic Director Alan Haller would know about the allegations and the details in an investigation like this one.
MSU did not make Haller available to us to answer our questions. It stood out that Haller was not There as Barnett was being introduced.
“We go way back,” Barnett said. “There is nothing about (him not being here to back me up) we are good.”
Also, MSU interim President Theresa Woodruff says she was not available to answer our questions about why the school did not disclose the allegation against the highest-paid school employee.