The head coach of UC Berkeley’s men’s basketball team acknowledged he knew that a female reporter was having a problem with his assistant coach two months before the athletic department alerted university officials to the possibility the woman was being sexually harassed, emails obtained by The Chronicle show.

The emails raise questions about how much head coach Cuonzo Martin knew about the woman’s allegations before July, when the university received a complaint that assistant coach Yann Hufnagel had harassed the reporter in 2014 and 2015. Hufnagel was fired Monday after a seven-month investigation by the campus Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination found that he violated harassment policies.

In a statement late Tuesday, UC Berkeley Athletic Director Mike Williams said, “To dispel any doubts about Coach Martin’s role, the university will be initiating a review of all of the documents and communications related to his actions. We firmly believe the results will support our confidence in Coach Martin.”

The revelations came a day after The Chronicle broke the news that Hufnagel had been fired, the most recent in a string of high-profile sex harassment incidents at the university. His dismissal occurred days before the team travels to Spokane, Wash., to play in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday as the highest seed in school history.

The woman in the Hufnagel case was a reporter who covered the Cal basketball team, according to a redacted investigative report that UC Berkeley released Tuesday. The report does not identify the reporter or the media outlet she worked for, but said she first contacted a “Head Varsity Athletic Coach” in May.

The report does not identify the coach, but emails obtained by The Chronicle show the coach was Martin.

In a July 5 email from the reporter to Martin, she wrote, “I wanted to continue our dialogue in regard to Yann Hufnagel. I only briefly touched upon the extent of his harassment of me in our two conversations... I want to be sure that I represent the scope of the harassment with as much attention to detail and accuracy as possible... particularly in light of something you said in our last conversation. You told me that you take this very seriously, and that you were hoping it was just an isolated incident.”

Her email, parts of which were also included in a 23-page campus investigative report released Tuesday, included her account about how Hufnagel trapped her in the garage to his Berkeley apartment last year and told her to go upstairs for sex.

Martin responded to the woman’s email a day later, writing, “Thank you for the follow up. I addressed this when you original contacted me. Is there still an issue?”

Right now, the only focus should be on our basketball team! My time to exonerate myself of a fruitless claim by a reporter will come. — Yann Hufnagel (@yhufnagel) March 14, 2016

He did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday night. In a statement to UC investigators, in which he was not named but called “Witness 1,” Martin said that when the accuser contacted him in May, she did not provide details or descriptions that constituted sexual harassment. The woman told investigators that she told Martin in May that she was being sexually harassed by Hufnagel.

The redacted report upholds the reporter’s complaint that during 2014 and 2015, Hufnagel texted her repeatedly with sexual innuendos and, when she refused his advances, denied her access to information she needed to do her job. Hufnagel was the unofficial press liaison for the men’s basketball team, according to the report, which says the reporter was “let go” by an unidentified employer after she was unable to do her job.

Hufnagel’s “conduct was objectively intimidating, hostile, or offensive — repeatedly propositioning (the reporter) for sex and, in some cases, suggesting that her participation in sex with (him) would grant her greater access to parts of the sports world in (his) control,” concludes the report.

The report says Hufnagel “admitted he engaged in the conduct” alleged by the reporter. When reached by phone, however, Hufnagel told The Chronicle: “We think we have a very strong case against the university,” but he would not elaborate.

Before The Chronicle obtained the emails that confirmed that Martin is “Witness 1” in the report, spokesman Dan Mogulof said that “per policy, if Witness #1 is a coach, a manager, or a supervisor, then he or she would be considered a ‘responsible employee,’ with an obligation to report allegations of sexual misconduct.”

The incident is the fourth high-profile sexual harassment case in less than a year that has come to light at Berkeley. At least 16 other individuals, who may include students, are under investigation by the campus for sexual harassment, while nine others are being investigated for sexual violence, UC officials said.

Officials criticized

Campus officials have recently been accused by employees and students of merely slapping the wrists of star faculty — former Law School Dean Sujit Choudhry, former astronomy Professor Geoffrey Marcy, and former head of research Graham Fleming — despite findings that they harassed other employees or students with unwanted kissing, groping or touching.

The perceived light punishments — including warnings, temporary pay cuts, and job reassignments — came to light in the press or, in Choudhry’s case, through a lawsuit, and each time led to stronger punishments.

Tuesday’s release of the Hufnagel report coincides with a public apology from UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks and Provost Claude Steele for “errors of judgment on our part” about how the top-ranked public university disciplines employees who violate its sexual harassment policy.

Months-long inquiry

The attention on sexual harassment at Berkeley and throughout UC may have prompted Hufnagel’s swift firing — although his investigation took seven months to complete.

Hufnagel’s accuser told investigators that the assistant coach sent her harassing texts every other week or so between November 2014 and May 2015 as she covered men’s basketball.

A number of texts between the two are printed in the report, including exchanges from March 2015, in which Hufnagel encourages her to come to his apartment: “It’s only real when you’re in the apartment with me ...” and refers to his bed and his couch. In another exchange, he refers to “the 3 of us” in the apartment, although it’s not clear who he’s talking about because of the redactions.

The investigators report that Hufnagel acknowledged “suggesting her participation in a three-way sexual encounter” with himself and a third person whose name is redacted, and that Hufnagel “recounted trying to ‘trick her’ into going up to his apartment to have sex.”

The reporter told investigators she typically asked to interview Hufnagel over coffee but that the assistant coach insisted on meeting in bars. In one such case, sometime before Feb. 23, 2015, the reporter said she agreed to go to Jupiter in Berkeley “because it had food, too.”

After two hours at the bar, she said Hufnagel was too drunk to drive, and insisted that the reporter take him home. She reluctantly agreed. At the apartment, she told investigators that there was nowhere to pull over on the street, so she drove into his garage.

After an argument during which the reporter says she refused Hufnagel’s efforts to make her go upstairs, she told investigators that “the garage door was closed behind them with her car inside” and that Hufnagel would not let her leave and began talking about oral sex, according to the report.

The reporter “recalled that she felt scared” and demanded to be let out.

After rejecting Hufnagel’s advances, the reporter told investigators that Hufnagel no longer provided her with information she needed to do her job, and she stopped covering the team.

In Hufnagel’s version to investigators, he drove the reporter to his building and asked her to come up to his apartment. He said he then drove her back to her car near campus when she refused his advances.

Hufnagel worked closely with Cal’s backcourt, including all-Pac-12 point guard Tyrone Wallace. A dogged recruiter, he was involved in the signings of five-star prospects Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb last spring.

Hufnagel has been credited with helping develop former Harvard standout Jeremy Lin, now with the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets. In its 2012-13 College Basketball Preview, CBS Sports named Hufnagel one of its nine “Dream Team” assistant coaches.

“You’re talking about a guy that’s a part of your staff, a family member,” head coach Martin said in a teleconference with reporters Monday morning. “You continue to push forward. There are always bumps in the road. … It’s not an easy thing, but we’ll find our way.”

Nanette Asimov and Connor Letourneau are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com and cletourneau@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov @Con_Chron