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Former Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker is under fire by his estranged wife for allegedly moving a significant amount of money out of their joint account and racking up big bills using their joint line of credit.
Tucker, who was suspended by Michigan State after two games and officially fired on September 27, 2023, was accused of sexual harassment by a woman named Brenda Tracy.
USA Today reports this week that Jo Ellyn Tucker accuses Mel in a request for a restraining order of withdrawing money without notice from their joint accounts, including more than $1.5 million from their joint line of credit to defend himself in the sexual harassment case.
In her petition for the restraining order, Jo Ellyn Tucker claims that just prior to her filing for divorce on April 5, 2024, Mel Tucker withdrew all the money from his two retirement accounts, including his Michigan State account, and transferred the funds to an account in which she has no access.
She also claims that the amount he has spent on litigation is excessive “compared to the balance of the parties’ marital estate.”
Brenda Tracy, an advocate for victims of sexual assault that Tucker had hired to speak to his Spartans team about sexual violence, filed a lawsuit against Mel Tucker in October of 2023, claiming he made sexual comments and masturbated without her consent during a phone call in 2022, 12 days after her second visit to the campus.
She received an emergency restraining order against Tucker at that time after Tucker and his attorney published a letter along with 98 pages of heavily redacted text messages that were reportedly taken from the cellphone of Ahlan Alvarado, Tracy’s booking assistant and best friend who died in a car accident in June of 2023.
In March, CNN reported that Tracy, a rape survivor, filed a notice of intent to sue for $75 million in a Michigan court in which she names Tucker, Michigan State University, its board of trustees and a dozen other unnamed people as defendants.