Fired Michigan State University football coach Mel Tucker dropped a bomb in the campus sexual harassment case against him when he and his legal team sent the media a trove of private text messages between the woman who accused him and her deceased assistant.
An Ingham County, Michigan, judge granted the woman – prominent rape survivor and activist Brenda Tracy – an emergency restraining order the next day, temporarily barring Tucker, his attorney and their associates from releasing more. A hearing Tuesday will determine whether the order should hold.
Tucker’s attorney touted the messages as evidence that Tracy had fabricated her allegations against Tucker. On social media, some echoed his claims, including a sports director for a TV news station in Lansing, Michigan, who proclaimed the texts proved Tracy had lied. The station fired her the next day and apologized to Tracy.
While the messages may have already damaged Tracy’s reputation in the court of public opinion, three of the nation’s top legal experts on Title IX and sexual abuse said the texts do not exonerate Tucker, who was accused by Tracy of masturbating over the phone without her consent.
Context, the experts consulted by USA TODAY said, is everything – and so far that context is missing from the subset of messages released.
“This is (Tucker’s) advocate’s presentation of a set of facts, so of course they are presented in what they hope will be the best light for Mr. Tucker,” said Patrick Mathis,…
