PROVO — Jake Retzlaff has broken his silence.
The rising fifth-year senior quarterback at BYU filed a response Friday to a civil lawsuit by a Salt Lake woman who accused Retzlaff of sexual assault last month in Utah’s 3rd District Court.
In the response, Retzlaff, through his attorney, requested that “the complaint be dismissed, that the plaintiff AG take nothing, and that Mr. Retzlaff is fully reimbursed for his fees and costs incurred to defend against this meritless case,” according to the 14-page filing obtained by KSL.
Retzlaff “denies each and every allegation contained” in the original complaint, including that he “bit, raped or strangled (the accuser)” after she drove from a residence near the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City to his apartment in Provo.
“Instead, Mr. Retzlaff and (the accuser) had a pleasant and entirely consensual evening together,” the response read, “playing video games, and a normal evening of consensual sexual interaction that was uneventful but pleasant, with the plaintiff sleeping over and leaving the next morning to return to Salt Lake City.”
A spokesperson for BYU athletics referred all questions back to the university’s initial statement at the time of the lawsuit.
Retzlaff also noted in the response that the plaintiff reached out to him via social media and/or text messaging “to initiate interaction between herself and Mr. Retzlaff on or about October 2023.” A month later, he alleged that the two engaged in a “consensual sleepover,” which later led to “very comfortable texting” and “flirty text exchanges with each other about the BYU/Utah football rivalry.”
Those text conversations included no mentions of their previous encounter being unpleasant, according to Retzlaff.
The response also notes that the encounter occurred when Retzlaff “was not publicly identified as an NFL draft prospect” following BYU’s 5-7 season in 2023. It was filed in May, when “the plaintiff AG hired a Salt Lake City lawyer and made her first ever claim of rape linked to a large monetary demand from Mr. Retzlaff” following the Cougars’ 11-2 season in 2024.
Retzlaff alleged that the plaintiff and he had no contact — “not even by text” — during the 2024 season.
Among a list of “other defenses” in the response, Retzlaff alleged that the accuser “had sex with one or more Utah football players,” and then reported to Provo police “four or five days later” that “she was assaulted by a ‘childhood’ friend from Salt Lake City.”
The response filing claimed the lawsuit against Retzlaff indicated an attempt to “extort money from him and that whichever Utah football player was a childhood friend of hers, who she did identify to the police as her assailant, must either be a benchwarmer, or even if a starter for Utah, is not a viable target for payment, and is not an NFL draft prospect.”
Retzlaff has spent the past two years at BYU after beginning his career at a pair of California junior colleges. Last season, he completed 57.9% of his passes for 2,947 yards and 20 touchdowns with 12 interceptions while rushing for 417 yards and six scores in leading the Cougars to a No. 13 ranking in the final Associated Press Top 25.
BYU opens the season Aug. 30 against FCS foe Portland State.
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