Former Arizona Wildcats football coach Rich Rodriguez said through his attorneys Monday that his former assistant tried to extort him out of several million dollars by threatening to take her sexual harassment claims public.
On Dec. 28, Melissa Wilhelmsen filed a $7.5 million claim against Rodriguez, alleging years of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.
Rodriguez was fired Jan. 2, the same day the notice of claim was made public.
On Jan. 19, Wilhelmsen filed a second claim for $8.5 million against the UA, saying that the school is liable for his conduct.
In Rodriguez's response, filed Monday with the Arizona Attorney General's Office, attorneys for the former coach called all the allegations "fictitious," saying that it's "time to expose and to end the Wilhelmsens' and attorney (Augustine) Jimenez's outrageous extortion attempt."
The letter says that "the reality of Coach Rodriguez's football office was that it was open and family-friendly, and the Rodriguez family and Ms. Wilhelmsen had a loving family relationship."
This differs greatly from Wilhelmsen's claims, in which she said that in addition to being forced to cover up for Rodriguez's extramarital affair, there were several instances when Rodriguez was physically inappropriate with her — brushing up against her breast, trying to kiss her and making comments about his genitals and underwear. The claim also mentions "The Hideaway Book," which was intended for coaches and some operations employees in order to “establish secrecy within Rodriguez’s inner circle and establish complete control of the group."
Rodriguez's response letter says that after Wilhelmsen left her employment with the UA last July, she, her husband and her attorney tried to extort the Rodriguez's for $7.5 million with "contrived, sensationalized allegations of sexual harassment."
"Ms. Wilhelmsen also presented the University with a list of fabricated claims that prompted the University to hire an outside law firm to fully investigate her outrageous allegations, and they found them completely unsubstantiated," the letter says.
The UA announced Rodriguez’s firing in a press release Jan. 2, saying that the school’s Office of Institutional Equity had received a sexual harassment complaint about Rodriguez in October, and hired an outside law firm to investigate.
Wilhelmsen refused to cooperate with the investigation, the release said.
