Female Athlete Sues After Trans Teammate Allegedly Plots On-Court Attack

SAN JOSE, CA- A former co-captain of the San Jose State University volleyball team has come forward with shocking revelations that she was the target of a scheme to injure her hatched by a former male teammate posing as a female, Blaire Fleming, Fox News Digital reports. 

Brooke Slusser, who graduated from San Jose State earlier this year, alleged in a lawsuit filed by her and ten other current or former women’s college volleyball players against the Mountain West Conference that Fleming was conspiring to have Slusser spiked in the face during a volleyball match. 

The suit came after Slusser and other teammates had left the team hotel the night before an Oct. 3, 2024, match against Colorado State, where they met with an opposing player. The suit alleged that the players who snuck out of the hotel witnessed Fleming hand over an SJSU scouting report, along with an agreement to throw the match in favor of Colorado State. 

Last November, the Mountain West Conference initiated an investigation, but it closed it out after concluding that there was insufficient evidence. 

Fox News Digital began conducting an interview with SJSU athletic director Jeff Konya about Slusser’s claims and other details of the investigation, however, five minutes into the questioning, he huffily stood up and, while walking away, muttered, “I’m done.” 

After Mountain West closed out the investigation, Slusser had a conversation with a teammate who was questioned as part of the “investigation.” Fox News Digital did not disclose the name of the teammate. 

“Based on what I was told, exactly what one of my teammates had seen go on that night–about talking about the scouting report and leaving the net open–was told to those lawyers. So, that should have been sufficient evidence [of the alleged plan by Fleming],” Slusser told Fox. She added that she wants the investigation reopened. 

“People are telling you this happened, and it’s not second-hand information. She sat there and heard the conversation between Blaire and [former Colorado State volleyball player] Malaya [Jones]. So, to me, just from what I know without even having to dig deep into this investigation, there is sufficient evidence, and they were told sufficient evidence.” 

Fox wrote that they were unable to independently verify Slusser’s claim that her teammate corroborated the allegations against Fleming during the investigation. 

During the brief interview with Konya, Fox News played a clip of Slusser repeating the allegations for him during a Mountain West media day on July 15. 

“I have no idea if she’s telling the truth or not,” Konya said of Slusser. Nor would he confirm or deny whether any witnesses interviewed corroborated the allegations against Fleming. 

“I have no idea,” Konya said. 

Fox News Digital obtained public records that showed Konya sent emails to facilitate interviews with at least six witnesses for the November investigation. Konya claimed he wasn’t ‘privy” to any information during the interviews. 

Konya was asked if he was satisfied with the “accuracy and thoroughness” of the investigation. 

“Yeah, I believe it was done professionally,” he replied. 

In a Nov. 15, 2024, letter obtained by Fox News Digital, the Mountain West Conference claimed the investigation had been closed without finding “sufficient evidence,” adding that no discipline was “necessary.” That letter and emails coordinating interviews for the investigation, obtained and viewed by Fox, incorrectly stated the game took place on Oct. 2. Konya claimed he didn’t know the incorrect date was repeatedly used. 

That statement directly contrasts with Konya’s emails setting up the interviews, where he repeatedly referenced the incorrect Oct. 2 date for the game, never citing the correct date, which was Oct. 3. 

The “investigation” appeared to set a record for timeliness, since it was closed without sufficient evidence only three days after the first emails to set up witness interviews were sent. 

It was at that point, when Konya was asked about the speed of the investigation, that he turned tail and ended the interview. 

Fox News Digital asked him if he believed three days was enough time to carry out a thorough investigation, and he cut off the interview. “I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances.” 

“I’m not going to answer any more of these questions. I haven’t had the sufficient details to answer these questions,” he said. 

During her interview with Fox, Slusser said she had suffered a concussion during her junior year in 2023, and was seeking to avoid hits to her head out of fear of permanent brain damage. When Fox raised that point to Konya, he said he was not aware of that. 

The law firm hired by the Mountain West Conference may have had a conflict of interest in investigating Slusser’s claims. The firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher (WFG), was the same law firm retained by the conference when a preliminary injunction was sought to prevent Fleming from being eligible for the women’s volleyball season and postseason. That request was filed by Slusser and 10 other former and current Mountain West players and the University of Utah. The investigation and legal issues took place in, November 2024. 

In a January 2025 motion to dismiss Slusser’s lawsuit, the document was signed by several WFG attorneys. In other words, the law firm that was hired to conduct a “nonpartisan” investigation into Slusser’s allegations against Fleming was the same one hired to defend the conference against the request for a preliminary injunction. 

Fox News Digital obtained emails that showed the lead WFG attorney for the Mountain West Conference, Tim Heaphy, coordinated with Konay, SJSU, and California State University legal counsel Dustin May to set up interviews with at least six witnesses in November 2024. SJSU head volleyball coach Todd Kress was one of the witnesses. Identities of other witnesses were redacted. 

Both Slusser and SJSU assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose told Fox News Digital they declined to be interviewed for the investigation. 

May, Heaphy, and Mountain West have refused to reply to Fox News Digital’s repeated requests asking if the allegations against Fleming were corroborated. 

WFG deleted a Nov. 27 online press release announcing the legal victory to keep Fleming eligible. It is still viewable, however, via an online archive. Fox reached out to WFT numerous times to ask why the page was deleted, but hasn’t received a response. 

On Feb. 6, 2025, Heaphy contacted May and offered legal counsel to navigate a federal Title IX investigation into the situation involving Fleming. On Feb. 18, May replied and declined his offer. The next day, Heaphy responded via email, writing, “Please let me know if we can help in any way on this or other issues.” 

As it turned out, Slusser was never struck in the head during the Oct. 3 match. However, she said there were several moments during the match that raised suspicions even before she became aware of the allegations against Fleming. 

“There was a lot of court open, more than usual, when it came to where I was supposed to be playing defense,” Slusser said. “After finding out that it was [allegedly] purposeful, that the block wasn’t there, I was enraged because…it could take one more slam to my head, and I could be done with volleyball forever.” 

Fox News Digital found that Fleming had 10 errors in the game, leading to SJSU losing in straight sets. 

Batie-Smoose previously told Fox News Digital that Fleming had refused to follow direction during the game and drew attention to one moment near the end of the first set. 

“Close to the end of that set was when [Fleming] overpassed a serve right on top of the net for Malayala to hit toward Brooke Slusser, and then they two were kind of doing eye contact, and making smirks up to that point. But then, when that happened, they both laughed, and [Fleming] said, ‘Thank you,’ and that’s when Blaire blew her a kiss,” Batie-Smoose said. 

In her lawsuit, Slusser said that the night before the Oct. 3 tame, one of her teammates approached her and said a teammate had received an ominous text message, warning her that she and her team “needed to keep [their] distance from me on game day against Colorado State, because it wasn’t going to be a good situation for me to be in…” 

It wasn’t known if that warning was related to Fleming’s plan to have her spiked in the face. 

Slusser said the ordeal at San Jose State had an emotional toll on her and her family, especially in light of how the investigation was handled. 

“I really wasn’t safe with anyone at the school or even the people that they would hire to come in and help,” Slusser said, speaking of the university and volleyball program. “It was hard for my parents to handle. The fact that they’re all the way in Texas, and they couldn’t be there for me every single day, was hard.” 

Slusser’s father, Paul, told Fox News Digital that he was “disappointed” with how the investigation was handled. 

“It was very disappointing because we thought like, ‘Oh my God, maybe something positive will come of this and shine some light on what’s actually going on,” he said. 

Slusser initially joined in a lawsuit, assisted by Riley Gaines and funded by the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), filed against the NCAA last September. Slusser’s lawsuit was filed in November, sponsored by ICONS. 

Slusser says the university intentionally hid their knowledge of Fleming’s actual biological sex from her and frequently paired them together in the same room on overnight trips. 

“I’m openly changing in front of this person, thinking that it’s a woman, and…I could have had the chance to take myself out of that situation and at least go to a different room and request to be switched to another room, and didn’t,” she said. “So, I got the opportunity of my choice taken away from me.” 

It was after she joined in the September lawsuit that Fleming became hostile toward her. 

“After I joined the lawsuit, Blaire did not like me whatsoever. There was a time where Blaire said, ‘I never want to speak to you again.’ And I said, ‘OK, that’s fine,’: Slusser said. “I just knew there was hatred toward me from Blaire.” 

Slusser said Fleming took that resentment onto the volleyball court, where he wouldn’t engage with her, which is essential during volleyball games. 

“There was a point where Blaire would not touch me, wouldn’t look at me, speak to me for a while until the coaches were like, ‘Get your crap together, we’re trying to play here,’” Slusser told Fox News Digital. 

Slusser left SJSU’s campus shortly after the start of the spring 2025 semester and returned to her family’s Texas home. She said constant harassment and threats from students opposed to her position against Fleming became too much to bear. She went home and finished her degree online. Negative media attention from leftist outlets in California also contributed to her decision to leave SJSU. 

“I didn’t realize how much it had affected her. It really was shocking to me when she came home. She was not herself at all. She was a shell of herself,” Kim Slusser said. “It was very traumatizing to her.” 

Slusser had toyed with the idea of playing an additional season of beach volleyball in the NCAA since she had a year of eligibility left, however, pulled out of the transfer portal after speaking with several Division 1 coaches about potential offers. She said she came to that decision after praying about it. 

She said concern for her safety and well-being, along with potential retaliation for her beliefs and public profile, also played a part in her decision. 

“I could have gotten there and could have had a lot of retaliation from just students or staff or the athletes even, and I didn’t know if that was something I could handle going through again,” Slusser said, and added that she had no faith that she would be protected from retaliation. 

“I was never shown that at an institution I thought I could trust…so I could really trust no one…There was a lot of fears going through he transfer process.” 

Slusser’s parents said her ordeal motivated her to embrace her Christianity, leading her to get baptized in the final week of June. She has since relocated to North Carolina. 

Still, she has the lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference to deal with. On June 23, her attorney, William Brock, responded to motions to dismiss, addressing Fleming’s alleged threats to harm Slusser. He also noted it was “outrageous” of Mountain West to hire WFT to conduct the investigation into Fleming. 

“It is outrageous, improper, and deceptive that the MWC hired the same law firm to both conduct a supposedly independent investigation of its member SJSU and defend the MWC in a federal lawsuit,” Brock said. 

“Hiring WFT to perform such conflicted and mutually exclusive roles suggests that Commissioner Nevarez and the MWC had no interest in discovering the truth. Instead, the MWC has long been focused solely upon advancing the interests of SJSU and pushing the narrative that men should be allowed in women’s college sports locker rooms and showers and to compete against women in college sports.” 

Fox News Digital asked Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez during the media days press conference why WFT was hired to conduct the investigation into Fleming and to defend his eligibility in court, citing the potential conflict of interest. 

“Well, that is a question concerning active litigation, so I’m not going to comment on ongoing litigation. But the statement that the same law firm represented the school in defending the player is incorrect.” 

Fox News Digital highlighted that it never insinuated in its question, nor ever reported, that WFG represented San Jose State. 

In response, the Mountain West Conference provided a statement to Fox News Digital attempting to cover Nevarez’s tracks. 

“Commissioner Nevarez believed you were asking about our law firm, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, representing both the Mountain West and San Jose State. It was clarified that you were asking about a potential conflict of interest with the lawsuit related to a conference policy and the match investigation,” the statement read. 

The statement claimed WFG didn’t defend Fleming’s eligibility in the November legal dispute, however, that appears to fly in the face of multiple documents reviewed by Fox News Digital and the law firm’s own announcement. 

“To be clear, Willkie Farr & Gallagher is defending the Mountain West’s policy regarding forfeitures, not a student-athlete’s eligibility. Eligibility is determined by NCAA policy and the university, not the conference office. “The investigation was focused on alleged player misconduct. The two matters in question are unrelated, and thus there is no conflict of interest.” 

In 2024, four conference opponents forfeited volleyball matches against SJSU.

Regarding the alleged Title IX violation, Wesley R. Powell, the lead attorney who represented the Mountain West Conference in November, has insisted that the conference is not subject ot Title IX, according to transcripts of the November hearing obtained by Fox News Digital. 

“Our position is that we’re simply not subject to Title IX,” Powell said during the status conference. “To be subject to Title IX, we would have to be recipients of federal government support, and the conference is not a recipient of any such support. And, so, from our perspective, all of the details, the expert testimony, you know, virtually everything that has been put into the record is ultimately irrelevant to us.” 

San Jose State is subject to an ongoing Title IX investigation by the U.S. Department of Education over Fleming being allowed to compete on the women’s volleyball team from 2022 to 2024. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the department continues to work on that investigation.