Former Utah State Administrator Jerry Bovee Disputes School’s Accusations, Recounts Firing

LOGAN – When the pain of being fired from a job that was more of an identity than a paycheck feels unbearable, Jerry Bovee summons the reason he ever started chasing his dream of being a college athletic director.

“I get to make a difference with student-athletes,” said Bovee, who was an associate vice president and deputy athletic director, when he and Utah State Football Director of Player Development and Community Austin Albrecht, were “dismissed for violations of university policies related to the reporting of sexual and domestic violence and failures of professional responsibilities,” according to a statement released by Utah State on July 2, 2024.

In that same statement, school officials said head football coach Blake Anderson had been placed on leave and the school intended “to terminate his employment agreement for actions taken in the spring of 2023.”

A week later, the school announced that another deputy athletic director, Amy Crosbie, had been fired. But in her case, officials refused to say if her firing was connected to the same 2023 incident.

Changes announced to USU football program. https://t.co/nrcMI5eZyT

— Utah State University (@USUAggies) July 2, 2024

And lastly, the afternoon of July 19, school officials announced that Anderson has been officially terminated from his head coaching job.

The firings have rocked the tight-knit school community.

Not only are both Bovee and Crosbie alumni of the school, they’re beloved by student athletes and big-dollar donors alike. Utah State is a Division I school that competes in the Mountain West Athletic conference with a student population of more than 28,000. The 126-year-old campus is located in the heart of Logan – a city about 54,500 people call home. It’s nestled in the northern Utah mountains surrounded by a valley known for agriculture. The school community revels in being ‘the little brother’ of Utah’s larger and more well-known schools – BYU and Utah. The sports teams are known for finding ways to punch above their weight, especially football and men’s basketball.

Bovee said the allegations leveled against him – that he didn’t follow school and Title lX rules about reporting the arrest of a football player  in April of 2023 – are false.

“One of the accusations is that I didn’t report it. That’s clearly false,” said Bovee, who has retained an attorney and plans to file an appeal through the school’s grievance process, something coach Blake Anderson did on Monday. But Bovee says he decided to share his story with KSL because just the assertion from USU officials that he failed to comply with Title lX policies has been so devastating, he’s not sure how he’ll recover.

“This has been the toughest thing I’ve ever dealt with,” Bovee said. “I’ve had a lot of people reach out and say, ‘I know you; you’re going to be fine. …We know your integrity. …But it doesn’t really make you feel better because they can’t do anything for me. I mean, maybe I can find a job from someone that will say, ‘Despite all of this, I know you’re a good guy, and I’ll hire you.’ But this has done irreparable damage to me working in this industry.”

The Incident In April 2023

All of this began in April of 2023 when a Utah State football player was arrested. None of those involved have named the student athlete whose arrest prompted Bovee and two other Utah State administrators to file an incident report with the school’s Office of Equity. And it’s the actions of administrators that Utah State officials say led to hiring an outside law firm – Husch Blackwell – to investigate how it was handled.

But according to court records obtained by KSL, Utah State cornerback Ajani La Rue Carter, was arrested on April 5, 2023, for domestic violence in the presence of a child, a class B misdemeanor, and assault, a class B misdemeanor.

According to a probable cause statement, a bystander called police when she “heard a female screaming “Get off of me” and “You are choking me.” When the witness went outside to see what was happening, she found Ajani Carter standing over the female victim, holding her down. Carter did have a baby with him at the time of the incident.”

The officer arrived and said he found “the victim with marks on her neck. When I asked how she received the marks, I was told that Ajani Carter was pulling on her hoodie which caused her to be choked. One of the bruises on her neck matched that of the draw string from her hoodie.”

According to the Husch Blackwell report, Anderson found out about the incident from the team’s Director of Player Development Austin Albrecht, who was also fired as part of the fallout. Anderson met with the player that same day – April 12, 2023 – and was told “he had not done anything wrong and that his girlfriend would support him.”

Bovee said he received a phone call from Anderson on April 12 telling him about the arrest.  Anderson told  Husch Blackwell investigators that he thought his only responsibility was determining if the player needed to be suspended from the team.

That became a moot point when the player entered the transfer portal on April 17 and was officially “separated from the team,” according to both Anderson and Bovee.

Criminal charges were filed against Carter in May of 2024. A year after Carter transferred from Utah State to Baylor, he entered a no contest plea in abeyance to the assault charge, while the domestic violence charge was dismissed.

According to court documents, Carter will return to court for a review in November, and if he hasn’t committed any new crimes, the charge will be dismissed. He was ordered to pay a fine of $690 and complete an anger management course. The attorneys representing Carter declined to comment on the case.

What Blake Anderson contends about his firing by Utah State

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— Deseret News Sports (@desnewssports) July 19, 2024

Jerry Bovee Responds

Bovee said that coach Anderson called him on April 12, 2023, to tell him that a football player had been arrested. He said the allegations had something to do with domestic violence or relationship violence, but Bovee says the coach told him (Bovee), who was the interim athletic director, he wasn’t sure about the details.

“He just told me what it was about, what had happened,” Bovee said. “It was a week later than when it happened. …We talked about when he found out, and the coach said, ‘Well, just recently. I found out; I’m calling you; that’s my job.’”

He said the two discussed if they were going to suspend the player, and Bovee told Anderson he’d report the incident “up the chain.”

That same day Bovee talked with his colleague Amy Crosbie and then interim director of student affairs, Eric Olsen and told them what he’d learned from Anderson.

“As we talked, the three of us after that meeting, (Olsen) said, ‘I will make the report to Title Nine Equity and tag you both on it’,” Bovee said, adding that satisfies what’s required of him and Crosbie.

When Bovee was fired, he received a summary report of the Husch Blackwell investigation, and he shared that seven-page document with KSL. In that summary, Husch Blackwell investigators said that while the report was filed in the required time frame, Olsen’s report didn’t contain all the information Bovee received from Anderson. School officials claimed in a summary of the investigative report by Husch Blackwell that was provided to Bovee that Olsen’s initial report didn’t contain all the information Bovee had received from Anderson. But Bovee said he was never asked to provide information, and in fact, he never heard from anyone from the Title lX Equity office.

“That’s what they say, but everything that I got from Blake that day, we talked about, and then (Olsen) reported what we knew,” Bovee said. “Oftentimes in these cases, these situations will grow as you learn more. … Now we don’t investigate title nine cases, that goes to Title lX, and it’s like a black hole. Once you send it to Title lX, oftentimes you don’t even know where the process is, or you don’t hear anything.”

But Bovee said he is required as an athletic administrator to look into the case enough to decide if the student athlete should be suspended from the team.

“The legal process and the Title IX process are different,” he said, noting that he’s handled dozens of these situations over the years at two different colleges and all of the investigations happen essentially along the same timelines but often in isolation from each other.

“You separate out the Title lX part of that,” he said. “That goes to a different place. And it’s a singular approach with a different office.”

The morning of April 13, there was a determination by the Title lX Safety Panel that the player “did not pose a threat to the campus community,” according to all of those involved and the Husch Blackwell report.

On April 14, Bovee initiated a second conversation with coach Anderson in an effort to find out more details about what happened so they could decide if the player should be suspended. That’s when Anderson told Bovee that the player was planning to leave the school on his own.

“When he was deemed not to be a threat to campus, and he was in the process of leaving,” Bovee said, “at that point, there’s nothing for us to do.”

The player officially entered the transfer portal on April 17, and new reports confirmed he signed to play football for another school in May.

Bovee said he never conducted or directed anyone to conduct an investigation into what happened. Anderson told the Husch Blackwell investigators that he talked to the student athlete, the alleged victim and the player’s roommate, and all said nothing violent transpired. He said he did this because he needed to determine whether or not to suspend the player from the team.

Bovee said he never saw a police report, heard from police or anyone from Utah State’s Title Nine lX office. He said no one ever asked for more information or let him know that the initial report may not have contained the details needed.

In fact, the first time he heard there may have been an issue was when he was asked to participate in an investigation by Husch Blackwell attorneys, which he believes he learned about in October of 2023.

Outside Investigation Findings

In the Findings and Conclusions section of the Husch Blackwell report summary given to Bovee and shared with KSL, investigators said, “Based on review of all information from witnesses interviewed and documents reviewed, our investigation found that Mr. Bovee failed to adhere in multiple ways to the terms and spirit of reporting obligations attendant to student-athlete arrest for charges involving sexual misconduct or domestic violence.”

But then the report also said, “Given the totality of the information gathered during the investigation, we find there is insufficient evidence to conclude that Mr. Bovee failed to fulfill his 24-hour reporting obligation pursuant to USU Policy 340.”

The independent investigators were troubled by Anderson’s investigation of the incident, as school rules forbid any kind of investigation outside of the Office of Equity’s investigation. That is something Bovee told KSL he understood. He said he didn’t direct coach Anderson to conduct his own investigation and was unaware of that happening, although he said they do try to gather information from police agencies in cases like this so they can determine if they need to suspend or remove a player from a team.

The Husch Blackwell investigators criticize Bovee for failing to ensure the Office of Equity had “all pertinent information within his knowledge about these issues is particularly troubling given extensive training about USU Policy 340 provided to Athletics Department personnel.”

But Bovee said he didn’t have any other information than what he shared with Olsen, and that once the student athlete left the team, he wasn’t notified that anything else was needed from him. In fact, it’s unclear what happened with the Office of Equity’s investigation and the Husch Blackwell report doesn’t address issues of findings.

Husch Blackwell investigators criticize Bovee for not remembering clearly what happened, saying in his three interviews he offered changing and ‘evolving’ accounts that hurt his credibility.

They also criticized his and Anderson’s decision not to immediately suspend the player and said, “allowing (the) student athlete to continue being part of the team despite being arrested for domestic violence could have indirectly communicated to other members of the team that such issues were not always taken seriously.”

Bovee’s attorney, Lisa Petersen, said it appears the alleged victim in this case wasn’t even interviewed by the Office of Equity, and that the student athlete wasn’t interviewed until May 3, 2024, an interview she said she received a recording of about a week ago.

KSL has been unable to reach the player Ajani Carter to ask if and when he was ever interviewed by the Office of Equity, and the law firm representing him declined to comment.

Peterson also points out that no one from the Office of Equity reached out to Bovee as part of an investigation, told him they needed more information, that Anderson’s efforts were interfering with the process or that the initial report was incomplete. Also, the student athlete was cleared to transfer to Baylor by the Title lX office shortly thereafter.

Petersen also points out that the school’s Title lX policy and USU Student Athlete Policies conflict because under Title lX, the reporting employees may not engage in their own investigation, yet the USU student athlete handbook requires these employees to look into information to help make a determination on disciplinary action.

USU Interim Policy 339.2.13 states: “This policy and the Title IX Sexual

Misconduct Procedures shall not be interpreted to prevent the University

from addressing a Respondent’s conduct under other applicable

University policies and/or procedures.”

Additionally, USU Student Athlete Handbook says, “The head coach has the institutional

responsibility to report the arrest immediately to his sport supervisor so

appropriate notice of the situation may be immediately forwarded to the

Director of Athletics.”

Then, “The Director of Athletics, in consultation with the head coach and sport supervisor, will determine additional disciplinary action based upon the individual circumstances of any misconduct.”

There is also no requirement to suspend a student athlete accused of domestic violence or sexual misconduct, only that it is an option.

Bovee was also criticized by Husch Blackwell for not sharing the information with administrators outside the athletic department, but he said these cases are highly sensitive any disclosures could impact the investigation, the student athlete, or the alleged victim. In fact, Peterson said federal statutes mandate that this information be kept private.

Petersen points out the Husch Blackwell report doesn’t recommend firing Bovee – or any disciplinary action against Bovee. Petersen points out that Utah State has its own policies addressing disciplinary action in such circumstances that lay out a progressive discipline process including verbal warnings, written warnings, and then termination. There is also an option for employees to resign and forego the right to the grievance process, rather than face disciplinary action.

Bovee never received any reprimand, warning and he wasn’t given the chance to address any issues, respond to issues or resign. Instead of being informed of the issues and allowed to respond or participate in a plan to address problems, USU officials announced his firing with a public accusation of failing to follow Title lX rules.

Administrative Turmoil

Bovee said that what’s really at play – bad blood between the school’s new athletic director and him and Crosbie.

Athletic director Diana Sabau was hired on Aug. 7, 2023 2024, and Bovee said there was almost immediate hostility directed at him, Crosbie and some other employees.

Some of the friction came from the fact that Bovee wanted the job Sabau earned – a job he’d been doing for the school for 10 months.

Bovee was asked to be the school’s interim athletic director by then president Noelle Cockett after John Hartwell unexpectedly resigned as athletic director on Nov. 1, 2022. A few weeks later, on Nov. 22, Cockett announced her ‘retirement’ from leading the school effective June 30, 2023. Her departure was mired in controversy, largely surrounding allegations that the school mishandled allegations of sexual assault by student athletes. One of those led to a lawsuit filed by a former football player, who said he suffered retaliation for reporting some of the issues he witnessed. That suit was settled in July of 2023.

“It was a very difficult time for me,” Bovee said.

Jerry Bovee "fully intends to file a grievance pursuant to USU policy within 30 days of termination."#AggiesAllTheWay https://t.co/Hc66P2smgy

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) July 7, 2024

Because Bovee wanted to be considered a candidate for the job he was being asked to do temporarily, he didn’t hire or promote anyone to do his old job. So, he essentially did both jobs for a president who was mired in controversy, and he said there wasn’t much guidance from anyone.

“As an interim …I think I met with (Cockett) three times,” he said. “And two of the three times she was talking about the climate and the situation of her dismissal, and there were some raw feelings. And I just listened. But I felt like I was kind of alone in my role. I would call Legal on some things. And there were times when I didn’t get a call back, or my call didn’t get answered. So we were just trying to do the best we could – Amy and I, as a leadership team, to make this work.”

Bovee said he interviewed for the athletic director position on Aug. 1 and Sabau was hired on Aug. 7. He went back to being deputy athletic director and said he hoped to win the confidence of his new boss. There was some conflict with donors and supporters of the athletic programs, but Bovee said he “kept the family together” and thought things could move in a positive direction.

Instead, he said he dealt with micromanaging, criticism and hostility, including that he was overpaid and not good at his job, and that became so bad, he went to human resources in November to ask what his options were. He said he also offered multiple times to resign and let Sabau hire her own deputy.

“She said, ‘You’ll leave when I say’,” he said. Bovee says he filed a formal complaint against Sabau with Utah State’s Human Resources Department on June 28, 2024. He was fired by email four days later.

Bovee said part of the pain he feels is just how complicated and difficult his 10-month tenure as interim athletic director was – and how much his family sacrificed for him to take on the added responsibilities.

“That ten months of being the interim was the hardest thing I’ve done professionally up to this,” he said. “Because I felt alone; there was all kinds of turmoil going on …, and I was keeping athletics afloat. We had four coaching turnovers in that 10 months out of 16 sports. And I had a cardiac arrest of a football player. I mean, it was one thing after another, that just felt like, really, we’re way in the deep end of the pool here. And yet we got through it. We kept the family together, and we won.”

Bovee points to his hire of men’s basketball coach Danny Sprinkle, who won a conference title, won coach of the year and led the Aggies to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the first time in a decade.

“We had probably as successful a basketball season last year, maybe the top three ever in the history of the university,” Bovee said.

Fighting Back

Despite the struggle he had with Sabau since her hiring last August, Bovee said he was still stunned when he was fired.

“I’ve never had a negative evaluation in my career,” Bovee said.

After the shock wore off, he decided he had to fight – not just the allegations leveled against him but what he saw and experienced as a Utah State administrator.

“I feel like I was let down by my alma mater, frankly,” he said. “And that’s why I felt like I had to fight, not just for me. … I only have my name and my reputation. So what’s that worth? And it’s worth everything to me. I mean, at first, when I was asked, ‘What do you want out of this?’ Well, I want my name back. Now, I don’t know how you get that, other than for people to say, see, it wasn’t on him. And I don’t know how we get to that. But that’s my hope. So I’m putting everything into this.”

His attorney Lisa Petersen plans to file a grievance with Utah State by Aug.1, but he’s still considering what comes after that.

“I didn’t do what I was accused of doing,” he said. “I’m not perfect, but on these points, I didn’t do it. And I would never do anything to hurt the institution.”

Utah State University did not respond or comment on this story when contacted by KSL.