Assistants' testimony could play key role in MSU sexual harassment case against Mel Tucker

As the hearing looms in the sexual harassment case against former Michigan State University head football coach Mel Tucker, four low-level staffers could play outsized roles in determining his culpability.

The hearing, set to begin Thursday before Virginia-based attorney Amanda Norris Ames, is a pivotal moment in the campus disciplinary proceeding involving one of the top-paid college coaches in America, who was fired last week after USA TODAY reported details of an investigation by the university’s Title IX office.

Two current Spartans football staffers and one of Tucker’s former assistants are among the witnesses who were interviewed by MSU’s outside investigator. Each had been involved in arranging or canceling campus visits by prominent rape survivor and activist Brenda Tracy, who filed the complaint against Tucker last December.

Their accounts could help answer a key question in the case: Was Tucker’s cancellation of Tracy’s planned return visit to campus intended as punishment for rejecting his advances? If so, he could be found to have engaged in quid pro quo sexual harassment, the investigation report suggests.

Tracy alleges that Tucker pursued her romantically for months after hiring her to speak to his players about sexual violence. His pursuit culminated in an April 2022 phone call, during which her complaint says he made sexual comments and masturbated without her consent. Tucker subsequently canceled her training session with the football team, which had been planned for that July.

Tucker has said he and Tracy had a romantic relationship and that the call was consensual phone sex. The cancellation, he said, was the result of a scheduling conflict – a claim that records obtained by the investigator appear to disprove.

More:Mel Tucker changed his story, misled investigator in Michigan State sexual harassment case

None of the three football staffers told the investigator they witnessed anything inappropriate or unusual between Tucker and Tracy. One, however, said Tucker had previously given a different reason for the cancellation that contradicts Tucker’s own account.

A fourth witness, Tracy’s longtime friend and booking assistant, Ahlan Alvarado, had provided the investigator with emails and text messages that corroborated aspects of Tracy’s version of events and refuted aspects of Tucker’s before she died in a car crash in June.

Without recordings or eyewitnesses, sexual harassment cases often hinge on third-party recollections of events before and after the incidents in question along with other circumstantial evidence that can speak to credibility, said Elizabeth Abdnour, a Lansing-based attorney who previously worked as a Michigan State Title IX investigator.

“You’ve got a set of folks who, as far as we know, have no reason not to be truthful with the investigator, and they have got no stake in the outcome,” Abdnour said. “That’s usually pretty strong evidence that what they’re saying is probably accurate.”

Here’s what each assistant told the investigator:

SPECIAL ASSISTANT WILL PRICE

Will Price, Tucker's special assistant, spoke to investigator Rebecca Leitman Veidlinger on Jan. 11, the report shows.

In charge of Tucker's calendar and travel, Price previously worked for Tucker at the University of Colorado in a similar role. When Michigan State hired Tucker in February 2020, Price accompanied him.

Price had arranged both of Tracy’s 2022 visits, according to his statement to the investigator – the one she attended and the one that was canceled at the last minute. He had also been present the first time Tracy spoke to the team in August 2021.

His recollection of why Tucker canceled the July 2022 visit differed from Tucker’s, the report shows. Whereas Tucker blamed it on a scheduling conflict with a new mental conditioning coach, Price recalled Tucker saying he didn’t want a sexual misconduct training to be players’ first activity when they returned from summer break.

Price also said that Tucker had initially wanted to reschedule Tracy’s visit for that August – which aligns with Tracy’s and Alvarado’s recollections. By contrast, Tucker told the investigator he had no plans of inviting Tracy back for at least a year, then later changed his story in a public statement, saying he had intended for Tracy to return in January.

Price’s last day at Michigan State was July 29, one week after the cancellation. He had gotten married earlier that month, and his wife had gotten a job in Texas.

He told Veidlinger that he had not talked with Tucker or Tracy since leaving and did not know if she had returned in August or not. His ex-colleague, Ben Mathers, he said, would have been responsible for any rescheduling.

DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL OPERATIONS BEN MATHERS

Mathers has served as Michigan State's director of football operations since 2022. He spoke to the investigator on Jan. 17 and 18.

In his role, he coordinates the team’s day-to-day operations off the field, including arranging travel and scheduling meetings.

Mathers took over the planning of Tracy’s July 2022 visit in the weeks leading up to it, as Price was on his way out, he said. He and Alvarado discussed logistics over Zoom on July 20, emails show.

The next day, Mathers was at a lake house when he said Tucker texted him asking if Tracy was coming the following week. Mathers said yes. Tucker asked him to cancel it. Mathers did not ask why, nor did Tucker give a reason, he told the investigator.

Mathers called both Alvarado and Tracy to apologize and assure them they would reschedule. But his recollection of discussions about rescheduling differs from theirs.

According to Alvarado and Tracy, Mathers said on the phone that the team was looking to postpone just a few weeks until August. But when Alvarado followed up by email a few days later, Mathers replied, “After speaking with coach we are now looking to set up a visit in January after the season,” according to a copy of the email included in the investigation report completed in July.

Despite what the email says, Mathers told the investigator he never actually spoke to Tucker about rescheduling. He said he assumed on his own that January would be ideal and that he did not recall August being discussed.

Hours after his interview, Mathers reached back out to Veidlinger, the report shows. When they spoke again, Mathers said he had not been fully honest and “selfishly” omitted some information.

Mathers had previously answered no when Veidlinger asked if Tucker used his private cellphone to communicate with him. In the second interview, Mathers acknowledged that Tucker regularly used his personal and work phones to text him about work matters.

Mathers also disclosed that he had intentionally deleted a text message with Tucker four days before his interview, after a pair of interactions with Tucker that left him feeling uneasy.

On Jan. 6, Mathers was in Tampa, Florida, when Tucker texted him asking if the team had any outstanding contracts with Tracy. Mathers said no.

A week later, late in the day on a Friday, Mathers said Tucker approached him in his office and asked him for Tracy’s cellphone number. Tucker did not say why he wanted it, Mathers said, but waited as Mathers rummaged through old emails looking for it.

Ultimately Mathers found Alvarado’s number and texted it to Tucker. Mathers deleted the text soon after of his own accord, he told the investigator, fearing it could surface through a public records request. Tucker’s “whole line of questioning” was “bizarre,” Mathers said, and left him with a bad feeling.

“There’s a concern when someone in a position of power is asking you for things that make you uncomfortable,” the investigation report quotes Mathers saying. He said he thought to himself, “I’m getting these off my phone.”

SPECIAL ASSISTANT GRANT KLAVER

Grant Klaver took over as Tucker’s new special assistant after Price left in July 2022. He had joined Michigan State's recruiting staff in February that year after an internship with the Buffalo Bills.

He spoke to Veidlinger on Jan. 30. Of all the witnesses, his interview appears to have been the briefest.

Mathers had connected Alvarado with Klaver to help nail down a date in January for Tracy to return to campus, a July 29, 2022, email shows.

Klaver told the investigator he never communicated with Tucker, Alvarado or anyone about rescheduling Tracy’s visit. He recalled asking Mathers at the time of the email if he needed to take any further action, and he said that Mathers told him not to worry about it.

Tracy’s name never came up again, Klaver said.

BOOKING ASSISTANT AHLAN ALVARADO

Alvarado and Tracy were best friends for more than two decades. After Tracy got into activism in 2014 and began doing speaking gigs, she hired Alvarado as her booking assistant.

Last June, Alvarado was driving in Maricopa County when a car smashed into her. Emergency responders had to use the jaws of life to get her out. After two days in the hospital, she was pronounced dead.

It had been Alvarado who took the lead in planning all three of Tracy’s visits to Michigan State, she told the investigator back in January.

Three months after the first campus visit, Alvarado recalled Tracy telling her that Tucker “likes” her and that it might be a problem. She said Tracy told her Tucker had expressed romantic interest in her, which she recalled made Tracy uncomfortable.

They discussed the matter again briefly during a Dec. 2, 2021, text exchange that Alvarado provided to the investigator. In the text, Tracy said she had just had a “heart to heart” talk with Tucker, who agreed that nothing could happen between them. Tracy wrote that she was glad things “didn’t get weird.”

The following April, Alvarado accompanied Tracy to Michigan State’s spring 2022 football game, where Tucker recognized Tracy as honorary captain and her nonprofit was featured on the jumbotron. Alvarado said Tucker seemed taken aback that Tracy had not come alone, as she had on the first visit. Alvarado said Tucker acted closed off, at first, but became “a bit more open” when the three of them went out to dinner that evening.

After the game, Alvarado and Tracy were in her hotel room when Tucker called Tracy. Alvarado could hear only Tracy’s end of the conversation. At one point, Tracy turned to her and said, “Should we go somewhere?” Alvarado said “OK,” thinking they would all go somewhere together. Then Tracy said, “Me? Just Me?”

Tucker called Tracy four times that night, her phone records show. Tracy and Alvarado both told the investigator that Tucker suggested multiple locations where he and Tracy could meet in private, including his house. He also asked if there was a back entrance to her hotel, they said. Tracy said that was not a good idea. They did not meet.

After the spring game in early May, Alvarado began coordinating with Price to arrange Tracy’s third visit to campus, emails included in the investigation report show. Price suggested July 25. Alvarado confirmed the date.

Alvarado said Tracy specifically asked her to join her, even though Alvarado did not normally attend her speaking engagements. Although Tracy didn’t say why, Alvarado told the investigator she believed Tracy felt uncomfortable around Tucker. Alvarado agreed to come.

Alvarado booked their flights and a rental car and invoiced Michigan State in late June, emails show. Mathers provided an itinerary on July 21 that listed him and another football staffer as contacts.

That trip would never happen.

On the morning of July 22, Price texted Alvarado asking if she and Tracy were still coming that week. Alvarado found that “strange,” she told the investigator, as she and Mathers had confirmed the details over the phone days earlier. She said yes, they were.

“Okay!” Price replied.

Mathers called later that day to cancel, suggesting August instead, Alvarado said. He told her there had been a scheduling conflict. A week later, he emailed her back saying they were now looking at January.

No one from Michigan State contacted Alvarado again.

Alvarado sent an updated invoice for $2,050 for her rental car cancellation fee and the video materials they had provided in advance. As of the date of her interview by the investigator, Tracy said no one had paid.

Kenny Jacoby is an investigative reporter for USA TODAY covering sexual harassment and violence and Title IX. Contact him by email at kjacoby@usatoday.com or follow him on X @kennyjacoby.