DA: Statute ran out on Syracuse's Bernie Fine sex charges
Then-assistant coach Bernie Fine of the Syracuse Orange looks on from the sidelines during their game against the Connecticut Huskies during the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden. (March 12, 2009) Credit: Getty Images
SYRACUSE -- Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said sex-abuse charges cannot be brought against former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine because the statute of limitations has long passed.
Fitzpatrick, who held a news conference at the county courthouse Wednesday morning, said he found the claims of two of Fine's accusers -- Bobby Davis and Michael Lang -- to be credible but, in essence, the state's hands are tied.
Davis and Lang, both former ballboys for the basketball team, and another man have accused Fine of molesting them several times throughout the 1980s and '90s.
Fitzpatrick said if his office had been told about the allegations before the statue of limitations had expired, Fine would have been arrested on child molestation charges.
"All I can tell you is that if we had investigated this . . . in 2005 or 2002, we would not be here today,'' he said. "We would have corroborated Bobby Davis' story. I don't know that the result would have been any different. The statute of limitations had still run . . . But I suspect Bernie Fine would have been fired a long time ago."
Federal authorities still are investigating allegations brought by a third accuser, Zach Tomaselli, now 23, who claims that he was abused by Fine in 2002 at a Pittsburgh hotel when the team was in town to play a game.
The district attorney said he was turning over that evidence to Fine's defense lawyers and that questions about Tomaselli's claims should be directed to federal officials.
Fitzpatrick, who has criticized the police and Syracuse University for how they handled the original allegations, said one of the questions he sought to answer through his investigation was whether or not Davis and Lang were being truthful.
"On almost every single criteria, Bobby Davis came out as a credible person," Fitzpatrick said. "Mike Lang also comes across as a credible person."
The district attorney even issued an apology to Davis.
"Bobby, I'm sorry it took so long," Fitzpatrick said. "I wish I had met you as a prosecutor in 2002. Even more importantly, I wish I had met you as a prosecutor in the 1980s. We wouldn't be here today.
"Someday your kids are going to ask you questions about why you did what you did, why you subjected yourself to the scrutiny. And your answer should be easy. You did it because it was the right thing to do. You were fighting for other kids."
Federal investigators recently searched Fine's home, office and university locker for pornography that could be used "to sexually arouse or groom young males" for sex, according to court records.
Fine, 65, had been the assistant to head coach Jim Boeheim since 1976, but was fired by the university on Nov. 27 after the allegations were made public and ESPN aired a taped phone conversation from 2002, which ESPN said was between Fine's wife, Laurie, and Davis.
