EXCLUSIVE: The house of former San Jose State College assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose was shot at on Monday evening in Scotts Valley, California, Batie-Smoose and native police have informed Fox Information Digital.
Scotts Valley Police Division Captain Scott Garner informed Fox Information Digital that officers have decided that the weapon used was a pellet gun, and it’s being investigated as an act of vandalism. The pellet has been recovered by police. No one was harmed and no suspect or motive has been decided. The investigation is ongoing.
“We’re following up with some neighbors just to see what we can find out,” Garner mentioned. “At this point, there’s no surveillance, there’s no leads, there’s no nothing. We’re just going to do our due diligence to go and interview the neighbors.”
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Batie-Smoose’s contract with San Jose State expired on Jan. 31 after she was suspended from this system in November. Batie-Smoose beforehand filed a Title IX criticism in opposition to this system over a state of affairs involving transgender volleyball participant Blaire Fleming. Batie-Smoose can be concerned in a lawsuit in opposition to SJSU and the Mountain West convention over the state of affairs involving Fleming.
No hyperlink between Monday evening’s incident and Batie-Smoose’s Title IX criticism, departure from this system and ongoing lawsuit has been decided by police.
Nonetheless, Batie-Smoose believes she was “targeted” for it.
“I do,” Batie-Smoose informed Fox Information Digital when requested if she believes incident was linked to the state of affairs involving SJSU and Fleming. “It can’t be a coincidence I have never had this happen and in our neighborhood I talked to neighbors that have lived there over 10 years and not even a robber in the area let alone someone shooting at someone in their house.”
Gap within the window of former San Jose State assistant volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose after an incident the place her house was shot at by, what police have decided, was a pellet gun. (Photograph courtesy of Melissa Batie-Smoose)
Batie Smoose mentioned the incident occurred when she was in a digital assembly with members of the Impartial Council on Girls’s Sports activities (ICONS).
She was talking with the lead lawyer Invoice Bock and Mountain West Convention volleyball gamers concerned within the lawsuit. As they have been discussing the authorized battle and the NCAA’s new coverage relating to gender eligibility, she heard glass break in her house.
“I hear this big sound and it sounds like breaking glass and at first I was just like ‘what just happened? Where did that sound come from?’ And then, once it registered, I look over to the window and I see the bullet hole.”
Batie-Smoose mentioned she crawled on the ground behind her sofa and referred to as her husband, telling him to name the police. The pellet was shot on the window going through her yard.
“Police said the shot had to come from the street behind me,” Batie-Smoose mentioned, including that the majority of her neighbors weren’t house when the incident occurred.
When Batie-Smoose was knowledgeable that police decided the incident was an act of vandalism as a result of truth the weapon used was, she referred to as the choice “crazy.”
“So because it might potentially not be a gun that it’s just considered vandalism even though it can harm you?” Batie-Smoose mentioned. “That’s kind of crazy to me. Regardless, if an object at that force comes to your head, you’re going to be harmed. It’s crazy to me.
“I do not know the way this will get downgraded to vandalism.”
Batie-Smoose said she previously received hostile emails about her stance on Fleming and trans inclusion in women’s sports. She also claimed to have had in-person altercations with individuals in Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley who disagreed with her stance.
“Folks acknowledge me locally and I am in an space that is talking out and chatting with battle for girls’s sports activities, I am in an space with some crazies and I undoubtedly imagine it was a goal on me for talking out,” she said.
Batie-Smoose added that all of the coaches and players involved with San Jose State’s volleyball program know her address. Batie-Smoose joined the program in 2023, but isn’t ruling out individuals outside of the program finding out her address via other means.
“I really feel this point in time individuals might come discover your handle fairly simply,” Batie-Smoose said. “Have I put it on the market? No. However I am positive in the event you seemed onerous sufficient you can discover my handle.”
Batie-Smoose has since left her home and is staying elsewhere while the investigation continues.
Batie-Smoose has appeared on Fox News programs multiple times advocating for the protection of women’s sports amid the ongoing scandal with San Jose State.
Batie-Smoose was suspended from the program on Nov. 2 after she filed the Title IX complaint. The complaint included allegations that Fleming had conspired with an opponent to have former SJSU co-captain Brooke Slusser hit in the face during a match in October.
Regular police protection was assigned to the team and continued throughout the season amid security concerns, including an incident in which Slusser was informed of a physical threat to her safety on Oct. 2, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Both Slusser’s lawsuit and Batie-Smoose’s Title IX complaint allege that Fleming conspired with Colorado State volleyball player Malaya Jones ahead of the match between the two programs on Oct. 3. The complaint alleged Fleming provided a scouting report to Jones to ensure a Colorado State competitive advantage, and allegedly established a plan to set up Jones with a clear lane to spike Slusser in the face during the contest.
The letter stated that the conference’s investigation included interviews with coaches and student-athletes at both San Jose State and Colorado State. However, the letter did not specifically state which individuals had been interviewed. The conference declined to provide any details on the individuals who had been interviewed when asked by Fox News Digital.
Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock, later provided a statement to Fox News Digital insisting that the investigation had been “contaminated with bias.”
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“As a result of the MWC’s investigation was insufficient, and something however thorough, and since the MWC’s close-out letter is riddled with errors, the undersigned is issuing this rebuttal and calls for that the MWC instantly and publicly launch: (1) the investigative report ready by its investigator(s), and (2) all paperwork related to the MWC’s claimed ‘thorough investigation’ and upon which the MWC’s determination to not proceed additional was based mostly,” read the statement from Bock.
San Jose State is also now under investigation by President Donald Trump’s Department of Education to determine whether Title IX violations occurred during Fleming’s tenure on the volleyball team.
San José State University President Cynthia Teniente-Matson has told Fox News Digital the university is prepared to cooperate in the investigation.
Fox News Digital has reached out to San Jose State to inquire for a statement regarding the incident involving Batie-Smoose’s home.
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