Tucker investigation lawyer has MSU ties
Attorney has guided multiple inquiries of players at school
EAST LANSING — The attorney Michigan State hired to investigate sexual harassment allegations against suspended football coach Mel Tucker is a former sex crimes prosecutor who has extensive ties to the East Lansing university’s Title IX office as an employee and a contracted investigator.
Rebecca Leitman Veidlinger, now a private practice attorney based in Ann Arbor, has conducted investigations involving at least five members of the Spartans football program since 2017 and since leaving MSU as an employee. She has also worked for the University of Michigan’s Title IX office, is an adjunct professor for U-M and handled at least one sexual harassment investigation for the Lansing School District.
That’s in addition to the Tucker investigation, which began after Brenda Tracy, an advocate for survivors of sexual assault who has spoken to athletes across the country, including at MSU, filed a complaint with MSU in December. The university has declined to say who made the decision to hire Veidlinger rather than have the school’s own staff investigate Tracy’s claims.
Reached by phone Tuesday, Veidlinger declined to comment or take questions about the work she completed for MSU earlier this year, saying she does not discuss her work with reporters. Dan Olsen, an MSU spokesperson, said the university is declining to comment on Veidlinger’s work to protect the integrity of the investigation.
Tucker was suspended without pay Sunday, the same day that USA TODAY published a story that included details of Veidlinger’s report, which she submitted to the university in July.
Tucker has denied Tracy’s allegations and said in a statement that they are “completely false” and that the proceedings against him are “devoid of any semblance of fairness.” He said the two had a consensual intimate, adult relationship.
Who is Rebecca Leitman Veidlinger?
After attending Georgetown University Law Center, Veidlinger spent much of her legal career working on sexual assault cases, according to her LinkedIn page.
She spent eight years as a deputy county prosecutor in Indiana, eventually specializing in sexual crimes, before working as a Title IX investigator at the University of Michigan for about 15 months. Veidlinger then held a leadership role in the MSU Title IX office for eight months in 2015. As a private practice attorney she has handled similar issues for higher education programs and K-12 schools, according to her LinkedIn resume. She has also done work for Eastern Michigan University and Kenyon College in Ohio.
She worked in MSU’s office when the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights completed and released the findings of a multiyear investigation into MSU in September 2015, saying that the university’s failure to address complaints in a prompt and equitable manner “caused or may have contributed to a continuation of this sexually hostile environment.”
A yearslong investigation by federal officials into MSU’s response to sexual misconduct complaints concluded during Veidlinger’s time at MSU and the school agreed to improve how it handled sexual misconduct cases in order to resolve the federal investigation in September 2015. Federal officials had reviewed more than 150 cases between 2009 and 2014. Approximately 30 cases were flagged by federal officials. Most involved MSU taking too long to complete investigations, while some also had missing or incomplete reports.
Veidlinger’s leadership role in MSU’s Office of Institutional Equity from April to November 2015 involved her reviewing old files and helping to hire, train and supervise MSU investigators. She also implemented new policies and conducted a small number of investigations, according to court transcripts.
Her time leading the university’s Title IX office ended almost a year before the September 2016 publication of a story by the Indianapolis Star that explosed Larry Nassar and triggered the long-delayed criminal prosecution of the doctor on behalf of hundreds of victims, as well as ushering in years of legal and ethical turmoil for the university.
Veidlinger has since taken on a leading role as an outside investigator in some of MSU’s most publicized Title IX cases.
Tracy’s attorney, Karen Truszkowski, has been involved in at least one case that Veidlinger investigated. Truszkowski represented a woman who said three MSU football players raped her, a case MSU hired Veidlinger to investigate at a rate of $275 per hour. Those players were dismissed from the team and later from the university following Veidlinger’s investigation. They also faced criminal charges of criminal sexual conduct.
Veidlinger has been an adjunct instructor at the University of Michigan Law School since 2019, teaching an upper-level course called “Title IX and Higher Education Law.”
When Veidlinger was contracted by the university as an outside investigator following an alleged 2017 sexual assault involving football players, she told the State Journal she needed to remain neutral. University officials then said she was hired because the extra workload would have strained the regular Title IX staff.
“Institutions are counting on me to be neutral; it’s one of the reasons I’ve been able to provide investigative services for universities,” Veidlinger said at the time.
What is her role in the Mel Tucker scandal?
Veidlinger conducted an investigation for Michigan State University after Tracy reported a complaint in December 2022 against Tucker.
MSU relied on Veidlinger to conduct the fact-finding investigation, which interim MSU President Teresa Woodruff said was started in December and completed and officially submitted to MSU in July.
Her final investigation report was 106 pages. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 5-6, when another outside attorney the university hired will decide whether Tucker violated university policy. An official sanction or punishment could then follow that determination.
What else has Veidlinger investigated?
Veidlinger also has been hired by MSU to investigate:
h Claims against Curtis Blackwell, the university’s director of football recruiting, for allegedly interfering with an investigation.
h Reports that three football players — Josh King, Donnie Corley and Demetric Vance — were involved in a reported Jan. 16, 2017, sexual assault at University Village Apartments. The three pleaded guilty to felony seduction charges in a plea deal.
h Allegations in 2017 against football player Auston Robertson in a separate incident. He was sentenced in 2018 for assault with intent to commit criminal sexual penetration.
Veidlinger also was hired by the Lansing School District in 2019 to investigate claims against Mark Coscarella, a deputy superintendent and a presumptive superintendent candidate. Veidlinger found evidence supported a former intern’s sexual harassment claims against Coscarella when he taught at a Holt elementary school. His contract with the district was not renewed.
Contact Mike Ellis at
517-267-0415.