Despite credibility of accusations, DA says he cannot prosecute in Fine case
William Fitzpatrick, the district attorney of Onondaga County, held a nearly hour-long press conference Wednesday. He said SUs investigation into the allegations in 2005 was inadequate.
UPDATED: Dec. 8, 2011, 2:18 a.m.
There is ‘little doubt that an inappropriate relationship existed’ between Bernie Fine and former ball boy Bobby Davis, the Onondaga County district attorney said Wednesday morning.
DA William Fitzpatrick held an almost hourlong press conference to address the investigation of Fine, former associate head coach for men’s basketball at Syracuse University. Fitzpatrick said his office is asking other victims to come forward, but otherwise he has essentially finished his investigation and is stepping back for federal officials to continue their probe.
Due to the expired statute of limitations, Fitzpatrick will not be able to prosecute. Had the allegations been brought against Fine before the statute of limitations expired, Fitzpatrick said Fine would have been arrested and prosecuted at least for misdemeanor sex abuse charges.
Fitzpatrick discussed several results of his office’s investigations, including that SU’s 2005 investigation into Davis’ complaint was inadequate.
‘Simply put, this investigation was inadequate. There was little if any intellectual curiosity given in the report in terms of follow-up development, corroborating evidence, developing new leads or new witnesses or exploring a number of red flags that were raised during Fine’s statement,’ he said.
SU’s investigation was conducted by Bond, Schoeneck & King, the law firm for which Tom Evans, senior vice president and university counsel, works. The first two accusers are both considered credible, Fitzpatrick said at the start of the conference.
Fitzpatrick said he will not be releasing SU’s 2005 investigation.
SU’s four-monthlong investigation included unsworn statements from Davis and the Fines, as well as a member of the SU Athletics Department and an individual Davis suspected may also have been the target of abuse, Fitzpatrick said. In one phone call with an SU Athletics member, the interviewee said Davis did complain about sexual abuse.
‘I want to think that this is an exception,’ Fitzpatrick said in regards to whether the inadequate 2005 investigation means other investigations done by SU’s human resources department or by BS&K for SU may also be inadequate. He said he is not concerned that SU may have done other deficient investigations.
The university will look into whether they need to re-examine how SU investigations are conducted after hearing from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, the law firm hired by the SU Board of Trustees to examine the thoroughness of the 2005 investigation.
‘My response is that we are a learning organization and we’re looking at what we did and didn’t do. We’re comfortable that we did forthrightly take this on very assertively from an anonymous allegation and that we did our best and we are reviewing it because we want to learn,’ Chancellor Nancy Cantor said in a statement.
Fitzpatrick said calls for Cantor or head men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim to leave their SU positions are unwarranted, adding Cantor is only guilty of believing a faulty report to be true and Boeheim was acting in response to accusations being made against a friend.
Fitzpatrick credited the telephone conversation between Laurie Fine and Davis that was secretly, and legally, recorded in 2002 as well as a Nov. 20 interview between a member of the DA’s office and someone with ‘significant inside information about the Fine household’ as the reason for believing there was the inappropriate relationship between Fine and Davis. He expressed distress the tape was not brought forward sooner.
It is unclear what will happen to Fine’s wife, Laurie, who ‘was well aware’ of the inappropriate relationship between her husband and Davis, Fitzpatrick said. Had it not been for the expired statute of limitations, Laurie Fine could be investigated for child endangerment. The legitimacy of the taped phone call will be verified by federal authorities.
Three people have publicly come forward against Fine, who was fired from the university Nov. 27. During the conference, Fitzpatrick expressed support numerous times for Davis, the first to come forward.
Fitzpatrick addressed whether there was a fourth victim, whose anonymous allegations were originally published in a New York Daily News article last week. Regarding the accuser, who remains unnamed and is currently serving a life sentence as a repeat felony offender, Fitzpatrick said ‘there is no victim No. 4.’
All questions regarding the specifics of the investigation into the third accuser, Zach Tomaselli of Maine, were directed to the U.S. attorney’s office or Pittsburgh Police, who are handling the case. None of the alleged molestation occurred within Onondaga County, Fitzpatrick said.
Exculpable evidence regarding Tomaselli, including records from SU regarding the men’s basketball team’s travel from Tennessee to Pittsburgh and Tomaselli’s school attendance records for the days in question, will be forwarded to Fine’s lawyer and the Manhattan DA, although the statute of limitations has expired. Fitzpatrick would not comment on the specifics of those documents.
Fine’s lawyers, Donald Martin and Karl Sleight of Harris Beach, issued a statement following Fitzpatrick’s press conference, much of which discussed Tomaselli. They thanked the DA ‘for fulfilling his ethical obligations’ and said they ‘look forward to reviewing these exculpatory materials.’
According to the statement, there is proof Tomaselli fabricated this allegation and said they hoped federal authorities would come to the same conclusion regarding Tomaselli’s lack of credibility.
‘Moreover, the notion that Tomaselli could be relied on to procure a warrant to search is alarming,’ the statement read. Fine’s DeWitt residence was searched Nov. 25 and his Manley Field House office searched Nov. 30.
‘If Tomaselli is found to have lied to federal authorities, particularly as it related to the application to search Mr. Fine’s residence,’ read the closing of the letter, ‘we hope that he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.’
Published on December 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride
