Ex-Syracuse Coach Bernie Fine Sued Over Sex Abuse Claims
December 11, 2011, 8:00 PM ESTBy Sophia Pearson and Phil Milford
(Updates with Sandusky’s release in third paragraph.)
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Former Syracuse University assistant men’s basketball coach Bernie Fine was sued by a man alleging he was sexually abused as a 13-year-old in a Pittsburgh hotel room.
Zach Tomaselli, who emerged in recent weeks as the third person to accuse Fine of sexual abuse, filed the civil lawsuit today in Pennsylvania state court in Pittsburgh. Fine is named in the case as the sole defendant.
Meanwhile, former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, whom police have charged with child sexual abuse, was released from Centre County jail this afternoon after posting $250,000 bail. He will be confined to his home with electronic monitoring, according to his attorney, Joseph Amendola, and the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office.
Syracuse fired Fine, in his 36th season at the Upstate New York university, on Nov. 27 after he was accused of sexually abusing two former ball boys. At a press conference in Syracuse yesterday, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said Fine won’t face charges related to those allegations because the claims are too old to prosecute.
One of the former ball boys, Bobby Davis, now 39, contacted police in 2002 and said Fine abused him when he was in seventh grade. The other ex-ball boy, Davis’s stepbrother Mike Lang, now 45, made his allegations this year, saying Fine abused him when Lang was in fifth or sixth grade, according to ESPN.
Pittsburgh Hotel
Tomaselli said last month that his desire to support Fine’s other accusers prompted him to come forward with accusations that Fine molested him in 2002 in the Pittsburgh hotel. Federal authorities are investigating those allegations, and evidence related to the case will be turned over to the U.S. attorney and defense lawyers, Fitzpatrick said yesterday.
Karl Sleight, an attorney for Fine, didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Tomaselli’s complaint. Donald Martin, another attorney for Fine, declined to comment and said he knew nothing about the lawsuit.
In a statement yesterday, the lawyers said they were looking forward to reviewing “exculpatory materials” in the case as it appeared that there is proof Tomaselli fabricated the allegation.
Tomaselli is facing sexual assault charges in Maine involving a 14-year-old boy, the Associated Press reported. He told the AP he plans to plead guilty in that case. Justin Leary, an attorney for Tomaselli in the Maine case, said today in a phone interview that plea negotiations in the case are “ongoing.”
Sandusky, 67, posted bail of $200,000 in real estate and $50,000 in a certified check from his wife, Dorothy, according to court records. He has been accused of sexually assaulting 10 boys dating back to the 1990s. He denies wrongdoing.
The Fine case is Tomaselli v. Fine, 11-025439, Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas (Pittsburgh). The Sandusky case is Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Sandusky, MJ-49201-cr-0000636- 2011, Magisterial District Court 49-2-01, Centre County (State College).
--Editors: Mary Romano, Peter Blumberg
To contact the reporters on this story: Sophia Pearson in Philadelphia at spearson3@bloomberg.net; Phil Milford in Wilmington, Delaware at pmilford@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net.
