Not long after last fall’s shocking sexual abuse allegations involving former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky came to light, another potential scandal was brewing in neighboring New York.
At the time, a young man accused Bernie Fine, an assistant on men’s head basketball coach Jim Boeheim’s staff at Syracuse University, of having sexually molested him years earlier.
Fine, who was also accused by several others of having molested them, subsequently was removed from his position at the college basketball hotbed in New York State. To date, Fine has stated that all the accusations are false; however his wife was reportedly taped during a phone conversation claiming she knew about her husband’s actions, but didn’t feel she was in a position to stop them.
While authorities said they had reliable evidence that two other young men could very well be telling the truth regarding Fine, the statute of limitations had run out, so charges would not be forthcoming. The two other accusers had served time over the years as ball boys for the Orange men’s basketball team.
Now comes word that one accuser, 23-year-old Zachary Tomaselli, recently informed CNN that his accusations were fabricated, adding he had never even met Fine.
Tomaselli told the network that he does “take a lot of pride in lying. Basically, I’m a sociopath.”
When he first met with investigators, Tomaselli informed them that he and Fine viewed porno together a decade ago prior to being reportedly fondled by Fine in a Pittsburgh hotel room. Not long after the accusations came to light, Tomaselli filed a lawsuit against the former coach, but his lawyer quickly dismissed it, noting that Tomaselli needs help.
Ironically, Tomaselli plead guilty of sexually abusing a teenage boy in a separate case, and will serve three years and three months in prison on that charge.
Meantime, Bobby Davis and Mike Lang, the two ball boys accusing Fine of inappropriate relations with them, have sued Boeheim after the long-time coach contested their allegations regarding Fine. The men’s lawyers stated that Boeheim not only defamed the pair, but assisted in defaming others from coming forward.
While we do not know what the end result of the lawsuit involving Boeheim and the former ball boys will be (a hearing to dismiss the lawsuit is reportedly planned for April 27 before a state Supreme Court Justice), we do know that making such allegations can impact a number of lives, not just the one accused.
For Zachary Tomaselli, hopefully his time behind bars will lead him to think about falsely accusing someone in the future.
Photo credit: orange44.blogspot.com
