The woman who claims Rich Rodriguez sexually harassed her when she worked as his assistant at Arizona has filed a new $8.5 million claim against the university.
Melissa Wilhelmsen, who filed a $7.5 million sexual harassment claim against Rodriguez last month, filed an additional claim on Friday with the Arizona Board of Regents. According to Caitlin Schmidt of the Arizona Daily Star, the documents state that Wilhelmson and her husband have accused Rodriguez of slander, defamation and false light, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress in the wake of his firing as the head football coach at Arizona. The claim said that includes “statements to football players at a team meeting on January 9, 2018.”
Wilhelmson’s original claim stated that Rodriguez sexually harassed her for over a year and forced her to lie to his wife to cover up an affair the coach had with another woman. The newer claim accuses the University of Arizona of being “vicariously liable” for Rodriguez’s behavior while he was in charge the football program. It also lists Rodriguez’s wife and several Arizona athletic department employees as defendants in addition to Rodriguez. Wilhelmson said she informed several school employees of Rodriguez’s behavior and was ignored, including when assistant athletic director Mike Parrish allegedly told her “we can’t afford those kinds of problems right now.”
Rodriguez was fired by Arizona on Jan. 2, with the school admitting it had received a sexual misconduct complaint about Rodriguez in October and hired an outside firm to investigate it. Rodriguez called the investigation “thorough” and claimed Wilhelmson refused to cooperate, though he admitted to not being faithful to his wife.
