A timeline of the Jerry Bovee lawsuits
Six months ago, Utah State’s athletic department put out a press release announcing the simultaneous firing of head football coach Blake Anderson, deputy athletic director Jerry Bovee and football director of player development Austin Albrecht.
All three of those fired in early July were accused in an official school news release of committing “violations of university policies related to the reporting of sexual and domestic violence and failures of professional responsibilities.” The accusations stemmed from an incident in April 2023 involving one of Anderson’s players and a female victim.
In the days and weeks following the reports, the responses from the fired employees were notably distinct. Albrecht quietly stepped away from his position, while Anderson filed a lawsuit against the school, accusing USU of defamation and breach of contract and seeking $15 million in damages.
On Jan. 3, after months of public dissent surrounding his departure, Bovee filed a lawsuit of his own, introducing new accusations that raise questions about the school’s adherence to public record laws.
Below is a timeline of the events leading up to Bovee’s recent litigation.
December 2024
Dec. 20: The Utah State grievance committee did not agree about Bovee’s termination, but USU Executive Vice President Larry Smith sided with the majority and upheld the decision, according to the Cache Valley Daily. “I have thoroughly read the Committee’s written summary, and I have given it the most serious consideration,” Smith wrote in the final decision. “I agree with the Committee’s ultimate findings and conclusions related to Mr. Bovee’s grievance. Where the Committee members were not in agreement, I side with the majority.”
January 2025
Jan. 3: According to the Cache Valley Daily, Bovee officially sued USU, alleging his termination violated state law. This came a little over a month after Anderson’s suit, and Bovee sued for $300,000 in damages. Bovee said in his suit that his former superior Vice President and Director of Athletics Diana Sabau removed a number of job duties and undermined him, which led him to believe “she was trying to minimize his role and move him out of his position.” The suit also elaborated on Sabau’s toxic behavior that led Bovee and others to complain to Human Resources on multiple occasions. According to the complaint, Sabau once yelled at former executive associate athletics director for internal affairs Amy Crosbie and Bovee for hiring an assistant coach without asking for her approval. “Sabau’s conduct during this meeting was so abusive that Crosbie began to cry, which Sabau mocked,” the lawsuit states. Bovee also reasserted his claim that he was not given the option to resign in lieu of termination, a provision in USU Policy 311. After “abusive conduct, mistreatment, insults, and veiled threats to his employment” and recognizing the tense relationship between him and Sabau, Bovee offered to resign and allow her to hire her own staff, to which Sabau replied, “You will leave when I tell you to leave,” according to the lawsuit. The school once again defended their decision in a statement issued to Cache Valley Daily.
Jan. 8: A new development arose in the Bovee suit battle, with Bovee alleging that top administration use private messaging apps. He stated in the lawsuit that administrators used the messaging app Signal frequently for conversations, which is said to be in violation of Utah’s Government Records Access & Management Act. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the lawsuit states, “In March 2024, Ms. Sabau asked Mr. Bovee and other employees to download a messaging app called ‘Signal,’ which deletes communications at the end of each day, so that she could ‘have more candid conversations’ that could not be discovered in an open records request. Ms. Sabau also mentioned that she and the President of USU used it often.” Bovee also requested transcripts of Zoom meetings related to his grievance hearing in October, but USU denied his request, telling him the Zoom call recordings were only accessible by a computer controlled or owned by USU and it couldn’t separate the part of the file it considered private or protected.
In a written statement addressed to The Utah Statesman on Jan. 13, the university said, “Utah State University stands by its employment decisions and disputes Mr. Bovee’s presentation of events. We look forward to resolving this case in litigation and continuing to focus on our student-athletes and the success of our athletics programs.”
It seems the legal battles between USU’s athletic department and its former employees will continue for many months to come. Coupled with other recent controversies, such as the volleyball team’s lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference and the legal challenges following the school’s move to the Pac-12, the department has several lawsuits on its hands.