Lansing State Journal Staff | Lansing State Journal
EAST LANSING — No Michigan State University official or employee has revealed the name of the woman who accused former football coach Mel Tucker of sexual harassment, a university-funded investigation has found.
MSU hired the law firm Jones Day to conduct the investigation in September after accuser Brenda Tracy's identity was reportedly leaked to reporters, a disclosure that could violate the university's confidentiality rules.
During a Board of Trustees meeting in December, Trustee Dan Kelly said Jones Day had completed its investigation and the school would release a public report on its findings. The school did not provide a timeline for providing the report.
While Jones Day conducted the investigation, MSU also hired a second law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, to represent CEO Rema Vassar, the State Journal confirmed.
Vassar did not respond to interview requests after the trustees' meeting in December, but said during the meeting that she was “pleased” that the Jones Day investigation had “completely exonerated” her.
The report released Friday said seven of the eight trustees agreed to be interviewed and gave their cellphones to the law firm for examination, except for trustee Dennis Denno, a Democrat.
Tracy, a prominent national advocate for sexual assault survivors, filed her complaint against Tucker in late December 2022. MSU did not disclose the investigation and Tucker continued to work as MSU's football coach. Tracy has said she does not plan to make her case public until the school's scheduled hearing in October. In an earlier statement, her attorney said an “outside source” revealed Tracy's identity, prompting USA TODAY to release an investigative report detailing the allegations against Tucker.
In October, the university's third-party Title IX investigator found that Tucker, who had denied wrongdoing, had sexually harassed Tracy. MSU suspended Tucker without pay the day the USA Today story was published and fired him with cause weeks later.
No leak detected
The law firm made an oral presentation to the board on Dec. 14 summarizing the investigation and its findings. Jones Day said the actual findings of the investigation were “presented to trustees in more detail” than the report MSU released Friday during the school's holiday break.
“In summary, investigators have failed, through a preponderance of the evidence, to identify any MSU trustee, administrator or employee who made an unauthorized disclosure of confidential information that resulted in media attention to the OIE investigation or became aware of the identity of the complainant,” the investigators wrote.
“Investigators have discovered that Tracy herself spoke to several members of the media, including at least one reporter who was the first to investigate a possible story about the OIE investigation. Therefore, while we cannot conclude that there was a leak from anyone within MSU, there is evidence that this matter was brought to the attention of some members of the media through the complainant.
“Furthermore, investigators found no evidence that any MSU trustee was aware of Tracy's identity as a complainant prior to USA Today's publication of her name, which tends to show that the trustees did not even have the opportunity to make an unauthorized disclosure of the complainant's identity.” external party. In addition, Jones Day was able to claim that fiduciary
Jones Day confirmed that 44 people at MSU, including all eight board members, “had some level of knowledge of the OIE investigation prior to the media reports on September 10, 2023.” The law firm said that every MSU employee it interviewed “with the exception of a small number who admitted telling their spouses that Tucker was under investigation” denied disclosing confidential information about the OIE investigation to anyone outside of MSU .
Almost 60 interviewed
The law firm conducted 59 interviews with 52 witnesses, including seven of the eight trustees. It said no one in the MSU administration declined a request for an interview. It said most of the 20 reporters Jones Day attempted to interview declined and none were willing to “provide details about the background sources for their reporting (although some confirmed that their sources were not from MSU).”
Seven trustees, with the exception of Denno, took part in these interviews.
The law firm noted that while it has no evidence or reason to believe that Denno's phone contains evidence that a trustee knew about or passed Tracy's name to anyone outside of MSU, the phone “contains evidence relevant to our investigation.” may contain evidence about a person at the firm refers to “Trustee It said the other person outside MSU also declined to be interviewed.
A message was left for Denno.
The law firm said it believes someone associated with MSU leaked a draft statement from Tracy's attorney, Karen Truszkowski. Truszkowski shared a draft of her statement with MSU General Counsel Brian Quinn on Sept. 11, but later amended that statement before releasing it to the media.
“Quinn shared the earlier draft of the statement with only twelve people – the eight trustees, the board secretary and three people in the MSU administration (interim president Theresa Woodruff, her chief of staff Michael Zeig and MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant). Quinn's email was marked “Attorney Privilege” with the instruction “Please do not distribute.”
“It appears more than likely that one of the 12 recipients of Quinn's email passed it on to Alex Walters, a reporter for the student-run publication State News. Based on witness interviews and the circumstances surrounding the State News' reporting, it appears unlikely that Truszkowski or Tracy leaked the previous draft statement. We therefore believe it is more likely than not that this unauthorized disclosure originated from MSU.”
A message was left for Truszkowski.
Months of legal fees
The university has declined to discuss legal costs associated with the investigation, but they were significant. Both law firms began work on the same day, Sept. 12, according to invoices obtained through a public records request.
For September and October, the first two months of the investigation, two law firms billed the university a combined $513,276.
Attorneys representing Vassar billed the university $208,750 for two months. And their hourly rates were nearly double what the lawyers conducting the leak investigation charged, records show.
MSU has not released any draft legislation for November and December.
Quinn Emanuel attorney fees started at $990 an hour and rose to $1,865.
According to the State Bar of Michigan's 2023 Economics of Law Survey, Quinn Emanuel's rates are well above the 95th percentile of hourly rates charged by Michigan attorneys.
According to the State Bar survey, the 95th percentile hourly rate for partners in a law firm is $730 or $700, depending on whether they are also equity partners. The rates charged by two Quinn Emanuel partners are more than double the peak prices.
Two partners at Jones Day billed for the work to investigate the leak, and it was quoted at $990 an hour and $967 an hour, about half of what Quinn Emanuel's lawyers had billed, but still more than the 95th percentile.
Board response
The board released a statement attributed to Vassar.
“The Board of Trustees takes the OIE’s investigation seriously and this report demonstrates the Board’s commitment to privacy, which is essential to this process,” Vassar said. “Now we are once again fully devoting our energy and attention to the roles and responsibilities enshrined in the shared governance approved by the Board at the December meeting. We will continue to listen to the Spartan community and hold ourselves accountable for the transparency necessary for a safer and more welcoming Michigan State University.”
Reporter Matt Mencarini contributed to this story.