Former SJSU Volleyball Star Says School Never Disclosed 1998 Assault Allegations Against Coach

What the emails show

San Jose State University received a letter in October 2024 from a woman who played for Todd Kress at Fairfield University in 1998, according to Fox News Digital. The letter alleges Kress "forcibly threw me on the bed," then "pulled his pants down and put his back side in my face," and later "picked me up, and threw me into the bathtub where he held me down and threatened to turn on the shower with me laying there."

Emails obtained by Fox News Digital show SJSU officials acknowledged receiving the letter and thanked the former player for coming forward. That acknowledgment came during the same 2024 season Brooke Slusser was playing her final year for the Spartans.

Slusser's account

Slusser told Fox News Digital on Friday that she was warned during that season never to be alone in a room with Kress. She said her parents heard rumors about the alleged 1998 hotel-room incident and told her to bring backup whenever Kress called her in for a one-on-one meeting.

"I was told just to be safe and not be in a room alone with him when my parents found out about it," Slusser said. "We're not gonna tell you everything that happened 'cause we don't wanna scare you, but we're telling you from here on out, you are not allowed to be alone in a room with Todd Kress."

Slusser said she was instructed to bring former assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smoose or a teammate whenever Kress pulled her into a meeting, which she said happened daily. "Take Melissa with you if he drags you into a meeting, like he was doing every single day, or take a teammate with you. Just do not be alone with him 'cause he can be aggressive," she said her parents told her.

The school's silence, according to Slusser

Slusser says the university never told her, her teammates, or apparently anyone on the roster about the letter or its contents. "The school gave us absolutely zero information. This was never brought up once," she said. She added that former teammates have since texted her asking whether the allegations are true and what else she might know, saying they too were kept in the dark.

Current and former players say they were not informed about a serious allegation against their head coach that the university had in hand for well over a year.

What's proven, what isn't

What's documented: SJSU received a letter in October 2024 describing an alleged 1998 assault, and administrators emailed back acknowledging it. What's alleged but unproven: the underlying assault itself, which comes from one accuser describing events from 26 years earlier with no independent corroboration cited in available records. No criminal charges have been filed against Kress. No university investigation has been publicly announced, and Kress has not offered a public response to the specific 1998 allegation in the material reviewed.

A quarter-century-old, uncorroborated allegation is not the same as an established fact, and Kress deserves the presumption that comes with that. But a university sitting on a serious complaint for over a year without informing the players who work under that coach daily is a separate, documented failure regardless of whether the underlying 1998 claim is ever proven.

What's unresolved

SJSU has not said publicly whether it opened any internal review after receiving the October 2024 letter, what if any action was taken, or why players weren't notified. Fox News Digital's reporting does not indicate the university has responded to Slusser's specific claim that players were kept uninformed. Whether SJSU conducted any Title IX or HR review of the allegation, and whether Kress remains in his coaching role today, are questions the university has not answered on the record.