According to ESPN.com, Syracuse has fired assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine amid allegations of child molestation.
“At the direction of Chancellor Cantor, Bernie Fine’s employment with Syracuse University has been terminated, effective immediately,” Kevin Quinn, the school’s senior vice president for public affairs, said in a statement.
Fine, who is in his 36th season at his alma mater had been placed on paid administrative leave when the accusations first emerged a few weeks ago.
Since then a third accuser has come forward after two former Syracuse ball boys claimed that Fine molested them in the past.
Zach Tomaselli, 23, of Lewiston, Maine, said Sunday that he told police that Fine molested him in 2002 in a Pittsburgh hotel room. He said Fine touched him “multiple” times in that one incident.
Tomaselli, who faces sexual assault charges in Maine involving a 14-year-old boy, said during a telephone interview with The Associated Press that he signed an affidavit accusing Fine following a meeting with Syracuse police last week in Albany.
Bobby Davis, now 39, said Fine molested him in 1984 and that the sexual contact continued until he was around 27. A ball boy for six years, Davis said the abuse occurred at Fine’s home, at Syracuse basketball facilities and on team road trips, including the 1987 Final Four.
Davis’ stepbrother, Mike Lang, 45, who also was a ball boy, told ESPN that Fine began molesting him while he was in fifth or sixth grade.
Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim is not going to comment on Fine’s firing, according to Boeheim’s wife, Julie Boeheim.
Ref: ESPN, ESPN.com (image)
