LOGAN — Former Deputy Athletic Director Jerry Bovee recently filed a lawsuit against Utah State University for violating state law and its own university policy when it terminated him in July of 2024.
This is the second former athletic department employee to file a civil lawsuit against the university in about a month.
Bovee filed the lawsuit on Dec. 27 in First District Court, claiming damages of more than $300,000 and asking for a jury trial.
From August to December 2023, Bovee alleges his direct supervisor, USU Athletic Director 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,” according to the suit.
Bovee complained to Human Resources about his supervisor, Sabau, multiple times between December 2023 to July 2024.
In one alleged instance, Sabau yelled at former Senior Woman Administrator Amy Crosbie and Bovee for hiring an assistant coach without asking for her approval, according to the complaint.
“Sabau’s conduct during this meeting was so abusive that Crosbie began to cry, which Sabau mocked,” the lawsuit states.
Later, Sabau threatened, ”there will be an investigation” and that “changes were coming,” the lawsuit states.
Although Bovee was told by Human Resources that “no policy had been violated” by his or Crosbie’s decision to hire the assistant coach, he says he met the following day to apologize for how things played out and was again told by Sabau, “changes were coming,” court records state.
Bovee claims 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.
In December of 2023, Bovee met with HR and expressed his concerns about morale and that he felt Sabau did not want him in the department and was looking for reasons to end his employment. He learned during that meeting that other employees had reported similar complaints to HR related to culture and morale.
After that meeting with HR, Bovee learned Sabau began to meet one-on-one with other staff members within the athletic department to assign them duties that had previously been part of his job description, including overseeing multi-media rights partnerships in sales and fulfillment operations. Sabau never communicated with Bovee about reassignment of his duties to other staff, according to court records.
Shortly before his termination, Sabau called Bovee on the phone to tell him he would be getting a $50,000 pay reduction, after previously getting a raise in August 2023 from USU President Cantwell when Sabau was hired.
Bovee suggested this was a surprise to him and was never told his raise was a one-year deal. Sabau responded that she was not at USU when the raise was given and he would need to discuss it with President Cantwell, according to the lawsuit. However, a text message from August of 2023 indicates Sabau mentioned that she was part of the pay raise conversation with President Cantwell and in “lock step” agreement on the raise, court records state.
Four days prior to Bovee’s termination, he attempted to submit a formal complaint of abusive conduct and retaliation to Human Resources related to a violation of university policy by USU Athletic Director Diana Sabau, but no one was able to take his complaint, according to the court record.
On June 28, he told HR he wanted to file a formal written complaint against Sabau for her “mistreatment and abuse toward him, and for creating a hostile work environment,” according to the lawsuit. He was told no one in the office was able to meet with him to file a complaint until July 2. Bovee was terminated on July 2 via email with a letter from Sabau stating he was being terminated based on a report from an outside law firm that Bovee had not seen, the lawsuit states.
In July 2024, Sabau appeared on KVNU’s Full Court Press sports radio show and disclosed that the outside law firm, that investigated and led to the terminations of four athletic department employees, was done by Husch Blackwell Law Firm. She said she did not have any part in it, since she was not hired by USU until after the investigation already began, a month prior to her hiring.
Last July, USU Head Football Coach Blake Anderson, deputy athletic director Jerry Bovee, senior woman administrator Amy Crosbie and football director of player development Austin Albrecht were all dismissed by USU over alleged failures to report an April 2023 incident of domestic violence as required by USU policy. All have maintained no wrongdoing in reporting the situation. Bovee and Crosbie have filed grievances. Two grievance committees stated USU followed policy, but not all agreed with the university’s decision to terminate the employees. USU has stood behind its decision to terminate the employees and has said, “we firmly support our employment actions.”
Blake Anderson’s $15 million lawsuit against USU, which was filed in November, has been assigned to a judge, but not yet given a court date.
A USU spokesperson issued the following statement to Cache Valley Daily regarding the new lawsuit:
“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.”