BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff responds in sexual assault lawsuit, claims suit is to ‘extort’ money from him

A lawsuit only portrays one side of the story. No criminal charges have been filed as of Friday June 27.

PROVO, Utah (ABC4) — Attorneys for BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff filed his response to the civil lawsuit that accused him of sexual assault. He denied the allegations in the lawsuit, claimed that the sex was consensual, and claimed that the suit was filed in order to “extort” money from him.

The lawsuit was filed on May 21 and claimed that Retzlaff, 22, sexually assaulted the victim, identified only as Jane Doe, when they met in November 2023. Provo Police Department reportedly tried to investigate the claims of sexual assault for nearly three weeks, but police claimed that the victim refused to identify her attacker.

Friday, June 27, Retzlaff’s attorneys filed his response to the lawsuit, in which he largely denied every allegation in Jane Doe’s original complaint.

The complaint alleged that Retzlaff and the victim began talking on social media a month before they decided to meet in person, when the victim visited Retzlaff at his apartment in Provo. In his response, Retzlaff admits that he did text the victim and she came to his apartment to “play video games that evening and sleep over.”

According to Doe’s complaint, they began to kiss, but Doe didn’t want to do anything more, and that’s when Retzlaff began to touch her inappropriately. She attempted to de-escalate, but the complaint alleged that she “was scared and felt like she could not get away.” The lawsuit stated that Retzlaff became angry, shouted at her, and prevented her from leaving the apartment, and that he later sexually assaulted her.

Retzlaff’s response “specifically and categorically denies each and every and all allegations” that he was violent with Jane Doe or sexually assaulted her. He claimed that they had a “pleasant and entirely consensual evening together” and a “normal evening of consensual sexual interaction that was uneventful but pleasant.”

Retzlaff also claimed that one of Doe’s friends and several of his teammates were present for part of the night, and that none of them “saw or heard anything unpleasant or coercive.” He alleged that he and Jane Doe continued to exchange “friendly and flirty” texts and direct messages after that night.

The response also claimed that Jane Doe only filed the lawsuit in order to get money from Retzlaff after he was publicly identified as an NFL draft prospect, stating that they had no contact after their encounter, until Retzlaff was an NFL draft prospect, when she “made her first ever claim of rape linked to a large monetary demand by Mr. Retzlaff.”

The response further alleged that Jane Doe identified her assailant to the Provo Police, not as Retzlaff, but as a childhood friend from Salt Lake City and that she also had sexual interactions with University of Utah football players around the same time. Retzlaff alleged that she decided to accuse him of rape instead of one of the other football players because they were not draft prospects and “not a viable target for payment.”