Cal basketball fired assistant Yann Hufnagel admits to sexual advances on reporter

The full Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination report that led to the firing of Cal assistant Yann Hufnagel was released today. It details a six month period of sexual harassment and misconduct by Hufnagel on the complainant in the case.

According to the report, Hufnagel utilized his power of access to the Cal basketball program to make various sexual innuendos and advances on the complainant, who was tasked with reporting on the day to day activities of Cal basketball. When those offers were rebuffed, access to the program was eventually restricted and curtailed, and Hufnagel also occasionally fed misinformation to the complainant to discredit her as a reporter.

Here are the pertinent details.

Complainant report

According to the report, the complainant was a reporter who regularly covered Cal basketball. She reported sexual misconduct from Hufnagel starting in November 2014 and concluding in May 2015, when she stopped reporting for the team.

Hufnagel was the only contact provided by the Cal basketball team for media access, meaning access to Hufnagel was critical to doing her job as a reporter of the team. That led to an imbalanced power dynamic, with Hufnagel taking advantage of it with unwanted sexual advances.

The complainant reported that 90 percent of the harassment took place during text. Here are the text messages included in the report, where Hufnagel wanted the complainant and an unnamed third person to participate in a three way.

According to the report, the inciting incident was on February 23, 2015, when the complainant drove Hufnagel home from Jupiter's after meeting her after a Cal basketball game because he claimed to be too drunk to drive. Hufnagel opened his parking garage for her car and then closed it behind her, then made several claims that he was expecting to have sex with the complainant that night. The garage door was closed for 15 minutes, in the estimation of the complainant. No physical contact occurred.

The report details a full account of the resulting incident.

In the report, the complainant also brought in a witness to address her case. The witness did admit to correspondence with the complainant, but nothing more outside of that.

A few months after the February incident and more rebuffed sexual advances via text, text message evidence in the report shows the complainant was fed misinformation about particular stories in order to ruin her credibility as a reporter for the team. She was also denied access to events, hampering her ability to cover the team.

The report indicates Hufnagel was the only source provided to her by Cal basketball, leaving her in a vulnerable situation.

Hufnagel's response

In the respondent's testimony in the report, Hufnagel did admit that he did use sexual innuendos with the complainant in his testimony.  He also expected to have sex with her at some point.

The report shows that Hufnagel denied the incident in the parking garage. He said he drove himself back home with the complainant, asked her if he wanted to come back up, and when she denied him, drove her back to her car. Hufnagel said that his stated intentions were to have sex with the complainant that night, and he was trying to do everything he could to get her into his apartment.

The report also reveals Hufnagel also eventually thought the complainant was "the lamest girl ever", a "total ditz" and "not a good fit".

Witness testimony

In the report, the complainant brought in a witness to corroborate her testimony, but the witness mostly gave non-answers in his account of the story. An email to the witness and the witness's testimony is available in the document below.

Below is the full document, 23 pages long. You can download the full PDF here as well.

OHPD report on Yann Hufnagel

The evidence presented in the report was enough for OPHD to find Hufnagel in violation of the university's sexual harassment policy, leading to his suspension and firing from the team.

Note: Analysis and discussion is welcome in the comments. Mudslinging, sexism and attempts to reveal the identity of the accuser will result in deleted comments and warnings to commenters.