Brenda Tracy tells MSU trustees they don't support survivors

More than a year after Brenda Tracy’s sexual harassment complaint against former Michigan State University football coach Mel Tucker emerged, she is speaking more publicly than ever before.

On Friday, the sexual assault survivor and activist came out swinging for the first time before the MSU Board of Trustees after traveling more than 2,300 miles from her home in Oregon. During the three minutes she was able to speak before the trustees at the October meeting, she called out several current and former board members and challenged what she portrayed as false stories about her.

Tracy began and ended her statement by reiterating many sentiments about MSU that have previously been made public about MSU by many other survivors, especially those who fell victim to now incarcerated serial sex abuser Larry Nassar.

“I came here today to tell you some of the ways you hurt me,” Tracy said. “I turned to MSU for help and in return I was victim blamed, shamed, accused of conspiracy and used as a pawn for personal agendas.”

“You say you’re a survivor-support board,” Tracy continued. “That wasn’t my experience with you, but I absolutely believe it should have been.”

MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant declined comment and board President Dan Kelly could not be reached.

This is the second time Tracy has spoken publicly about the ordeal between her and Tucker. Earlier this month she spoke with WILX-TV in Lansing and gave an extensive interview after filing a civil lawsuit against Tucker. He filed a lawsuit against MSU.

Tracy, an Oregon native, met Tucker in 2021 while looking for someone to educate the team on sexual assault prevention. At the time, MSU had been rocked for years by the Nassar sex abuse scandal involving hundreds of mostly young female athletes.

Tracy had founded the non-profit organization, Set the expectationthat teaches male athletes about consent after surviving a gang rape in 1998. Tucker, one of the highest-paid coaches in the sport with a 10-year MSU contract worth $95 million, invited Tracy to speak to the MSU football team. times, and a friendship was born.

But it turned into a situation that Tracy described as “predatory” and culminated in a late night phone call when she said Tucker masturbated against her will over a phone call. Tucker has said their relationship was consensual.

An MSU auditor determined last October that Tucker had sexually harassed Tracy and violated his contract. That was him September discharged.

Tracy filed a complaint with MSU in December 2022 and months later made her story public during MSU’s investigation after her name was leaked.

“I was faced with a decision: do I go public, or do I let the media story choose the story for me,” Tracy told the MSU board. “During the (sexual harassment investigation), it became clear that I should have protected myself, but I should not have protected myself from you, the administrators at Michigan State University.”

Tracy read a text message sent by former MSU trustee Pat O’Keefe, which said her actions were “out of line,” and then called on trustee Rema Vassar.

“It’s so hard to think why she would kill herself,” Tracy said, reading a text message from O’Keefe to Vassar. “She had plenty of outs if she didn’t want to be a victim, like hanging up the phone, the battery was dead… Dr. Vassar, this message was sent to you and you supported it by putting a heart on it.”

Reached by phone, O’Keefe declined comment. Vassar could not be reached.

Tracy continued to question Vassar from the podium, saying the former board chair “alleged interference” in the investigation by Trustees Renee Knake Jefferson, Dianne Byrum and Brianna Scott.

“These conspiracy allegations are also alleged in Mel Tucker’s lawsuit (against the MSU administration and board),” Tracy said, “which alleges that … the government and the defendants personally cooperated with Tracy and her counsel and with OIE staff to prepare a factual file. intended to support her false claims against the defendant.

“These allegations are absolutely false,” Tracy continued. “I have never met or spoken to any of you before today, and I have never conspired with anyone.”

Tracy also disputed a claim by Vassar that an outside investigation by law firm Jones Day cleared the board of directors of leaking her name.

“Dr. Vassar, as chairman of the board, you stated that the board was exonerated for leaking my name, but Trustee (Dennis) Denno, you did not give the investigators your phone to help you expel yourself because I am directly or indirectly involved in leaking my name.

Denno could not be reached.

“I filed my complaint with the OIE because I was sexually harassed and threatened by head football coach Mel Tucker, a man who posed as an ally for the survivors, a man who brought me here to educate his staff and players about sexual violence and misbehavior prevention, and then turned around and then turned around and did to me the same thing I was brought here to do.”

Tucker’s attorneys could not be reached to comment.

Following Tracy’s emotional statement to the board, her attorney, Karen Truszkowski, also addressed the board and criticized the way they handled the situation involving Tracy and Tucker.

Later, Tracy spoke to local television news station WLNS 6 News and elaborated on her thoughts on what happened to the MSU administration after she came forward with her complaint against Tucker. She said the board was in political “chaos” and that left her “caught in the crossfire.”

She said her reputation has been destroyed and it has “decimated her life” after working on more than 100 campuses across the country and with more than 50,000 young men, including coaches. She said she hasn’t worked since the Tucker ordeal.

“The part that gets lost in all of this is that I am a survivor of a brutal gang rape and I came forward 16 years after it happened in 2014,” Tracy said. “I found the courage to make it public, and then I tried to turn that trauma into something good and use it to help other people.”

But then, she said, Tucker acted in a way that was “predatory.”

But she said she wouldn’t change anything.

“I wouldn’t do anything differently because I didn’t do anything wrong,” Tracy said. “And I think this is the point that I really want people to understand, like stop asking questions, slandering me and blaming me. Ask him why he did this.”

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Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the action Tracy took against Michigan State University.