Bernie Fine: Allegations 'patently false'

Longtime Syracuse men's basketball assistant coach Bernie Fine called the allegations of sexual abuse levied by two former ball boys "patently false."

In a statement released Friday by the upstate-based law firm Harris Beach, Fine said, "I am confident that, as in the past, a review of these allegations will be discredited and restore my reputation."

Fine, 65, in his 35th year on coach Jim Boeheim's staff, was placed on administrative leave late Thursday after the university learned that Syracuse police had opened its own investigation. ESPN reported that the former Syracuse ball boys, Bobby Davis and Mike Lang, alleged that incidents occurred repeatedly from the late 1970s through the early 1990s.

Davis, who now is 39 years old, and Lang, 45, are stepbrothers.

Syracuse chancellor Nancy Cantor said in an email to the Syracuse community Friday that the school "will do everything in our power to find the truth."

She also said the university performed its own investigation into child molestation allegations against Fine in 2005 but found no evidence of such behavior.

Cantor, in the email, said the accuser informed the school in 2005 that police "had declined to pursue the matter because the statute of limitations had expired."

But the university did not contact police in 2005 regarding the allegations, Syracuse police spokesman Sgt. Tom Connellan told The Associated Press on Friday.

Connellan did not return a phone message left Friday by Newsday. In a statement, he said, "The purpose of this investigation is to determine if there had in fact been any sexual abuse in the past and if there are any current victims."

Boeheim vigorously defended his longtime assistant in interviews with three media outlets Thursday, saying the former ball boys are looking to capitalize financially in the wake of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal. Former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was charged two weeks ago with 40 counts of sexually abusing at least eight young boys.

Boeheim said he believes money is behind the allegations and added that he's "done talking" about the accusations, which he said he considered old news because they already had been investigated by the university.

Fine agreed.

"The fact is these allegations have been thoroughly investigated multiple times," Fine said in his statement. "When evaluating the veracity of these accusations, please keep in mind that credible media outlets were approached in the past to publicize these false allegations and declined to do so. I fully cooperated with all past inquiries."