When high-profile attorney Gloria Allred filed an affidavit Monday accusing Bernie Fine’s wife of having sex with former basketball players, she turned up the pressure on Syracuse University to settle the defamation lawsuit against it.

In the affidavit, one of Allred’s clients, Bobby Davis, alleges Laurie Fine had inappropriate sexual relationships with at least three SU basketball players between 1993 and 1997.

Allred told The Post-Standard on Tuesday that she publically filed the affidavit because she needs to know if any of the players in question reside in New York City. If they do, she can, and will, argue against SU’s request to move the lawsuit to Onondaga County, according to an article published Tuesday in The Post-Standard.

Mariann Meier Wang, a NYC lawyer working with Allred, wrote in court papers filed Monday that the affidavit was filed in response to a request from SU and head men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim to move the venue of the lawsuit from NYC to Onondaga County, according to the article.

The university previously argued that the suit should be moved because both parties — Boeheim and SU — reside in Onondaga County. However, if Davis’ lawyers find out that any of the former players live in the NYC metro area, they will argue to keep the case downstate, according to the article.

Davis and his stepbrother, Mike Lang, both former SU ball boys, filed the defamation suit against the university and Boeheim in late December. The lawsuit claimed Boeheim defamed Davis and Lang when he said they were lying about being sexually abused by Fine. Boeheim later apologized for these comments.

SU and Boeheim requested that a judge dismiss the slander suit on Jan. 20, the same day Allred demanded they turn over any documents pertaining to the allegations against Laurie Fine, according to the article.

Though Laurie Fine, 53, is not a defendant in the lawsuit, Davis stated in his affidavit that Laurie’s actions were relevant to her husband’s and that Boeheim should have been aware of both situations, according to the article.

‘The fundamentally dysfunctional relationships that the Fines maintained — Laurie Fine with young male basketball players and Bernie Fine with ball boys — appeared widespread and spanning years,’ Davis wrote in the affidavit.

Edward Menkin, Laurie Fine’s lawyer, called Allred irresponsible and unprofessional for filing the affidavit against his client, according to the article.

‘This is both desperate and disgusting, an example of a lawyer flailing about to keep a dying lawsuit in the public eye,’ Menkin told The Post-Standard on Tuesday.

Legal experts say the new allegations against Laurie Fine have weak ties to the defamation case, according to the article.

egsawyer@syr.edu

 

Published on January 31, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Liz: egsawyer@syr.edu | @3sawyer