NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Former San Jose State women’s volleyball player Brooke Slusser reacted on Monday after Fox News Digital reported that the Mountain West Conference hired the same law firm to investigate the transgender athlete Brooke Fleming’s misconduct allegations that the conference was using to defend the athlete’s eligibility for the conference tournament in court.
Slusser was at the heart of an alleged conspiracy plot involving Fleming and a Colorado State player to harm her during a game. Fox News Digital previously reported that Mountain West hired the firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher (WFG) to investigate the allegations.
The Mountain West hired the firm to handle the investigation in the same month that the same firm represented the conference to protect Fleming’s eligibility in a request for preliminary injunction to have the trans athlete disqualified from women’s competition and the conference tournament.
The investigation was closed after three days with Fleming being cleared of impropriety. But no evidence was ever disclosed by the conference, as Fleming went on to finish out the season, earn all-conference honors and even led SJSU all the way to the Mountain West championship game.
The WFG attorney who led the investigation into allegations against Fleming, Tim Heaphy, later offered the school legal counsel to help it navigate a federal Title IX investigation over the same situation, as seen in public records obtained by Fox News Digital. The offer was declined.
Slusser spoke about the recent findings in an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “America Reports.”
“It’s obvious once this was put out into the public that there’s so much bias in this situation, and they’re trying to just sweep these things under the rug and not have to deal with it when there’s obvious problems going on all over the place,” she said.
LAW FIRM THAT WORKED TO KEEP SJSU TRANS PLAYER ELIGIBLE ALSO CLEARED ATHLETE OF CONSPIRING TO HARM TEAMMATE
“They need to be held accountable for using the same law firm and not doing a thorough investigation because Title IX was built to protect women, and they’re obviously deciding to protect the man in this situation when they were blatantly trying to harm a female athlete at their school, and they’re still backing this male athlete and that’s just wrong all over the place. And there’s schools all over the nation doing this, they’re just not getting the spotlight it deserves.”
Slusser ultimately hopes that no other female athletes have to deal with the same things she experienced.
“The goal is to never have to let another female athlete go through what I did. The sport was ruined for me my senior season,” she said. “So, the goal is to give back to those young girls who had the same dream that I did but to be able to love it the entire time.”
None of WFG’s attorneys have been accused of violating any applicable rules of professional conduct.
William Bock, the attorney leading a lawsuit against SJSU and the Mountain West on behalf of 11 current or former conference women’s athletes, spoke out against the conference earlier Monday.
Bock’s remarks followed a White House statement on the issue from earlier this week.
Mountain West, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, and San Jose State University have not responded to requests for comment.
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Read the full article here
