Mel Tucker wins court fight against Brenda Tracy over release of text messages

MASON — An Ingham County judge dismissed a lawsuit brought against former Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker by the woman the school said he sexually harassed.

The lawsuit, which centered around text messages between Brenda Tracy and her friend, Ahlan Alvarado, that were released by Tucker and his attorneys last year, had been filed on behalf of Tracy's nonprofit and an LLC in her name. Alvarado, who has since died, was Tracy's friend of two decades and also worked as her booking assistant for her nonprofit, Set The Expectation.

Tracy, a national sexual violence prevention advocate who has spoken to MSU's football team and was on campus another time as an honorary captain for a spring game, has said Tucker sexually harassed her, including making sexual comments and having unwanted phone sex with her in 2022.

MSU fired Tucker for cause last year after Tracy reported him and the university investigated. Tucker's attorneys have said the messages show Tracy had a personal, consensual relationship with Tucker, an aspect that could be crucial in his potential lawsuit against the university.

During a hearing on Thursday morning, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Wanda Stokes dismissed six of the seven counts in the lawsuit because she said attorneys for Tracy's nonprofit had not met legal standards for the lawsuit to proceed to discovery. She ruled the remaining count was moot because a protective order previously agreed upon between the parties will remain in place.

The protective order bars the release of specific information related to sexual assault, harassment or gender discrimination victims that may be on Alvarado's phone.

The dismissal with prejudice means attorneys for Tracy's nonprofit can't refile the lawsuit. Eric Delaporte, an attorney for Tracy's nonprofit, said he plans to appeal Stokes' ruling

Tensions between attorneys boil over

Legal arguments during the hearing centered on whether Alvarado was considered Tracy's employee bound by confidently and whether her surviving husband was the legal representative of her estate and therefore owned the phone he gave to Tucker and his attorneys.

However, tensions between the opposing sides came to the surface during and after proceedings.

Andrew Abood, an attorney for Tucker, argued to Stokes that the text messages already released, and still on the phone, don't contain protected business information or sensitive information about victims.

"Those text messages delineate many things, much of which appears to be conversations that I would say tantamount to young girls walking down the hallway in high school," Abood said. "And they're talking about 'Oh, I think he likes me'; 'Oh, look at I'm with this person or that person.' None of which is privileged. None of which carries any proprietary right, in the sender to the receiver."

After the hearing, Delaporte called Abood's comments "absolutely, unequivocally disgusting."

Attorney said Tracy's nonprofit now 'destroyed'

Delaporte also told reporters after the hearing that Tucker and his attorneys had "destroyed" Tracy's nonprofit, which had worked with college and professional athletes to prevent sexual abuse. He pointed to the good work the nonprofit had done and said schools and organizations won't work with them anymore.

Specifically, Delaporte said that last year the nonprofit had an agreement with The North Face to provide "150 of their really nice premium jackets to a women's shelter" as part of an event with Set The Expectations.

"North Face pulled out the second that it realized that text messages and everything else were being released," Delaporte said, referencing the October release of some texts, which then prompted Tracy to sue. "North Face won't work with Set The Expectations anymore. Nobody will work with Set The Expectations. They have essentially destroyed Set The Expectations."

A message was left seeking comment from The North Face.

Abood said he didn't know what Delaporte was talking about but that Stokes made her ruling "on the legal issues and the merits."

Delaporte said after the appeal of Stokes' decision, he planned to "take a very good look at what our options" are regarding filing a compliant with the Attorney Grievance Commission of Michigan or other litigation.

First texts released ahead of key MSU hearing

The legal fight over text messages began about a month after USA Today published a story in September detailing MSU's long-running sexual harassment investigation of Tucker. The university suspended him without pay the same day the story was published and weeks later fired him for cause.

In October, the MSU hearing officer hired to adjudicate the harassment proceeding issued a report that found Tucker responsible for violating the school's sexual harassment policy.

Tucker — who denies any wrongdoing and said he and Tracy had a consensual, intimate relationship — has taken steps to file a lawsuit over his termination. According to his contract, signed in 2021, he was owed about $80 million in guaranteed money when he was fired.

On the day of a key October hearing in the former coach's harassment case, Tucker's legal team released pages of text messages between Tracy and Alvarado.

Tracy then sought a court order preventing Tucker's team from releasing additional messages, arguing further releases would include sensitive or confidential matters that could cause irreparable harm. Private discussions between Tracy and Alvarado "involve highly sensitive information regarding other survivors and their families," Tracy wrote in an affidavit filed with the motion for the restraining order.

Less than a month after that agreement, Tucker and his attorneys asked the judge to dismiss the case altogether, which she did Thursday.

Contact reporter Matt Mencarini at 517-377-1026 or mjmencarini@lsj.com.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Former MSU coach Mel Tucker wins court fight against Brenda Tracy over text messages