Syracuse University's Bernie Fine Fired Amid Sex Abuse Allegations
Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine has been fired thirty-six years after he began working with his alma mater in upstate New York.
Fine was fired on Sunday amid new developments in the allegations of sexual abuse against the 65-year-old former coach.
Fine’s termination came following the release of a tape recording in which Fine’s wife, Laurie Fine, openly discussed the abuse with one of Fine's alleged victims, Bobby Davis.
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The recording was played on a segment of ESPN’s Outside The Lines.
“I know everything that went on, you know. I know everything that went on with him… Bernie has issues, maybe that he’s not aware of, but he has issues,” Laurie Fine said in the taped telephone conversation with Davis.
Davis asked Laurie Fine if she thought there might have been other victims to which she responded, “No… I, I think there might have been others, but it was geared to, there was something about you.”
“It’s just wrong, and you were a kid. You’re a man now, but you were a kid then,” she added.
Fine is currently facing allegations of sexual abuse from three accusers. Two former ball boys maintain that Fine abused them for years.
Originally head coach Jim Boeheim defended his assistant coach even calling Davis a “liar,” however, following the airing of the tape Boeheim expressed regret over his statements that might have been “insensitive to victims of abuse.”
Syracuse University chancellor Nancy Cantor released a statement with regards to Fine’s termination in which she stated, “tonight, in the wake of troubling new allegations that emerged in the media today, I am writing to let you know that Bernie Fine’s employment at the University has been terminated effective immediately.”
“Frankly, the events of the past week have shaken us all,” she added, saying that the taped recording of Fine’s wife discussing abuse never surfaced in a 2005 investigation conducted by the university.
Upon news of the termination Bobby Davis told ESPN, “I appreciate the university doing the right thing.”
“I hope he now realizes he is not invincible and that he’s not above the law,” he added.
