“This is about two young people who were once boyfriend and girlfriend in the 8th grade, and their communications years later,” the statement says.

The athletic department said Thursday that on Sept. 13, University of Nebraska-Lincoln police informed department officials that the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office wanted to talk to Washington.

The police provided contact information for Jamie Vaughn, the executive associate athletic director for compliance, to the Attorney General’s Office. UNL police did not know the nature of the inquiry, the department said in a written statement.

That day, department officials said, Vaughn spoke with Ed Sexton, an investigator in the Attorney General’s Office.

Vaughn was told that the AG’s Office was cooperating with a California agency and that Sexton wished to speak to Washington on the agency’s behalf.

Sexton said Washington was not in any trouble in Nebraska and would not say whether Washington was the subject of the California agency’s inquiry or a witness to a matter being investigated, or anything about why the California agency wished to speak with Washington.

Vaughn said he would look into the possibility of arranging an interview.