A UC Berkeley assistant men's basketball coach, who has been fighting efforts to fire him for violating the school’s sexual harassment policy, resigned suddenly on Thursday.
Yann Hufnagel's resignation comes despite pressing the university for an appeals review. But UC Berkeley confirmed that the appeals hearing that was set to conclude Friday would not go forward.
"The toxic environment at UC Berkeley has made it impossible for Mr. Hufnagel to rejoin the basketball team he loves, even if he is vindicated in full, as the facts would show. He needs to look out for the student-athletes he coached, as well as his own future. Earlier this morning and after much consideration, he decided it was time to move on," Mary McNamara, Hufnagel's attorney, wrote in a statement to KQED.
This week, Hufnagel's team, which also included crisis management PR firm Singer Associates, promised that new evidence it provided the university would prove a female sports reporter had fabricated her sexual harassment accusations.
The reporter had told UC Berkeley investigators that Hufnagel sent her unwanted texts and once trapped her in the garage of his apartment building. Hufnagel admitted to trying to trick her into having sex that night, and the Title IX office moved to fire him for violating the school's sexual conduct code.