BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff said in a new court filing that he had “consensual sex” with the woman who filed a civil lawsuit against him last month, but he denied her sexual assault allegations against him.
His response was filed Friday in Utah’s 3rd District Court.
Retzlaff was accused in May by a woman, identified in her lawsuit as Jane Doe A.G., of assaulting her in Retzlaff’s Provo home in November 2023 after the two connected on social media a month earlier.
Several of Retzlaff’s teammates and one of the woman’s friends were at Retzlaff’s apartment while the group played video games before Thanksgiving 2023, according to his filing.
In the lawsuit, Jane Doe A.G. had alleged that later in the night, Retzlaff began forcefully kissing her and touching her. The woman said she told Retzlaff “stop” and “no” as he was grabbing a condom, but alleges in the lawsuit that he did not stop and had sex with her.
The woman connected with police days after the alleged assault, but initially withheld Retzlaff’s name.
Retzlaff states in his filing that he had sex with the woman but that his actions were part of a “normal evening of consensual sexual interaction.”
Jane Doe A.G. said in her lawsuit that she went to a hospital a few days later and had a rape kit examination completed. She also said she reported to Provo police. But she said she initially did not tell the officer whom she was accusing of assault, fearing that detectives would question him and share that she had reported him. “She was scared and in shock and not ready to confront him,” according to her lawsuit.
In his filing, Retzlaff said he filed a public records request with the Provo police department. The documents the department provided showed that Jane Doe A.G. said the person she was accusing was a childhood friend — which rules out Retzlaff, who met her in November 2023, his filing said.
“It is clear from the Provo police department interview notes that plaintiff AG was identifying someone else as her assailant, other than Mr. Retzlaff, who is not and was not her childhood friend,” it said.
Retzlaff’s attorneys also wrote that the two stayed in touch, exchanging text messages about the BYU-Utah rivalry, in January and February 2024.
After that, Retzlaff did not hear from the woman for about 15 months, according to the court filing. Retzlaff’s attorneys alleged that because Retzlaff is “now an NFL draft prospect,” the woman “believes ... she can extort money from him.”
Based only on unspecified “information and belief,” Retzlaff alleges that Jane Doe AG may have been reporting an unspecified University of Utah athlete to police. Retzlaff does not claim that there is any support for this allegation in the police records.
He alleges in the filing that whoever “she identified to the police as her assailant is not an NFL draft prospect, and therefore, the plaintiff AG decided more than fifteen months later to change the person accused of rape to instead be Mr. Retzlaff, because by that time, in 2024, Mr. Retzlaff was viewed as an NFL draft prospect after the completion of the 11-2 season, which was 13 months after their consensual one night sleepover.”
The woman filed a civil lawsuit for alleged battery, assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She was seeking damages of at least $300,000.
Retzlaff has requested that the case be dismissed and that he be reimbursed for his legal costs.