Syracuse Scandal Timeline: Key Dates To Bernie Fine Investigation

Syracuse Scandal Timeline

NOTE: This timeline will continue to be updated and amended as more information becomes available. Please send tips and corrections.

1967: Bernie Fine graduates from Syracuse University.

1974-76: Fine is the varsity basketball coach at Henninger High School in Syracuse.

1976: Jim Boeheim is named head coach of the Syracuse basketball team, succeeding Roy Danforth. He asks Fine to join his first staff as an assistant coach. A Syracuse alum who had been a student manager of the team during his undergrad years, Fine accepts. Another assistant on that first staff is Rick Pitino.

1979: Syracuse becomes a founding member of the Big East Conference.

1982: Alleged abuse of Mike Lang, then a Syracuse ball boy, begins.

1984: Alleged abuse of Bobby Davis, then a Syracuse ball boy, begins shortly before he enters the seventh grade.

June 1985: Bernie Fine marries Laurie.

1987: Boeheim coaches a Syracuse team featuring Derrick Coleman, Sherman Douglas and Rony Seikaly to the Final Four. The Orange lose to Indiana in the championship game. Davis alleges that he was abused at a hotel in New Orleans during the Final Four. At the time, Fine is considered a top assistant but is not receiving the head coaching offers generally commensurate with his status. "You start to wonder what's going on," he told The Syracuse Herald-Journal in 1987. "If I was screwing up interviews, I could take it, but I don't even get the interviews. I'm thinking about going full time into business and getting out of this."

1990-1991: Davis is a senior at Henninger High School. He later informs ESPN that he engaged in a sexual relationship with Laurie Fine during this period.

1998: Davis is given several thousands of dollars by Fine, supposedly to pay off student loans. Davis later admits to ESPN that he asked for the money as a type of revenge but that he had to engage in sexual contact with Fine in order to receive the money.

2000: Fine is promoted to associate head coach.

2001: Davis informs Danielle Roach that he was abused by Fine. She is a longtime friend and former girlfriend.

December 2001: With Boeheim being treated for prostrate cancer, Fine handles head coaching duties temporarily. The team defeats Hoftra on Dec. 4 but drops the next two games before Boeheim returns.

Jan. 21, 2002: The third victim to come forward, Zach Tomaselli, is allegedly molested by Fine in a hotel in Pittsburgh. Tomaselli alleges to have accompanied Fine when Syracuse traveled to play Pitt.

2002: Davis contacts Syracuse police and alleges that Fine had molested him for years, beginning in 1984 and continuing on until he was about 27. Police inform him that the statute of limitations had run out. The chief of police at the time is former Syracuse basketball standout Dennis Duval.

September 2002: Davis contacts The Syracuse Post-Standard, sharing the accusations he had previously revealed to Roach and the Syracuse police.

October 8, 2002: Davis secretly and legally recorded a phone conversation with Bernie Fine's wife, Laurie. In the conversation, Laurie admits knowledge of what had been taking place between her husband and the former ball boy.

October 2002: The Syracuse Post-Standard sends a reporter and photographer to Davis at his home in Utah.

2003: The Post-Standard continues to investigate Davis' case. He also takes his claims and the tape-recorded conversation to ESPN. Neither media outlet publishes a story, largely because no one else corroborates the story.

Feb. 10, 2003: Laurie Fine admitted to the Post-Standard that it was in fact her voice in the tape.

April 7, 2003: Syracuse wins the NCAA national championship.

2005: Bobby Davis informs Syracuse University of the allegations against Fine. The school conducted its own investigation that lasted four months. Kevin Quinn, the school's senior vice president for public affairs, said the investigation included interviews with people Davis said would confirm his accusations. But no one corroborated the story.

Oct. 17, 2011: The Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame inducts Fine.

Nov. 5, 2011: Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is arrested and charged with abusing eight boys over a 15-year span.

Nov. 10, 2011: Roach contacts Syracuse police, telling them that Davis had been abused by Fine.

Nov. 14, 2011: Lang, the second alleged victim to come forward, called ESPN reporter Mark Schwarz while he was sitting at a satellite truck covering the Penn State scandal in State College, Pa.

Nov. 17, 2011: ESPN reports that police are investigating Bernie Fine on allegations of child molestation. The network aired interviews with Davis and Lang. Now 45, Lang told "Outside The Lines" that Fine molested him starting when he was in fifth or sixth grade. Both alleged victims described their encounters with Fine, claiming that he reached into their shorts and rubbed their genitals.

Fine was placed on administrative leave.

Nov. 18, 2011: Head coach Jim Boeheim issues a statement supporting his longtime assistant:

"It is a bunch of a thousand lies that he has told. You don't think it is a little funny that his cousin (relative) is coming forward?" he told ESPN. "He supplied four names to the university that would corroborate his story. None of them did ... there is only one side to this story. He is lying."

Bernie Fine also issued a statement, denying the allegations and calling them "patently false."

Nov. 25, 2011: Police involved in the investigation search the home of Bernie Fine, but they decline to comment on what they were looking for.

Nov. 27, 2011: Tomaselli, now 23, became the third man to accuse Bernie Fine of child molestation. Tomaselli faces sexual assault charges in Maine involving a 14-year-old boy. His father maintains that he is lying.

ESPN's "Outside The Lines" aired the tape-recorded conversation from 2002 along with an interview with Bobby Davis. Laurie Fine admits her knowledge of the alleged abuse in the conversation. In the interview, Davis claims that he also had a sexual relationship with Laurie and that Bernie knew about it. He also alleged that Laurie initiated the relationship and that the pair had sexual intercourse.

Later that evening, Syracuse fired Bernie Fine. Shortly after the firing, Jim Boeheim released a statement agreeing with the decision and expressing regret of his past statement accusing the alleged victims of lying.

Nov. 28, 2011: ESPN Senior Vice President & Director of News Vince Doria addresses ESPN's handling of the case. ESPN reporter Mark Schwarz explains to CNN's Anderson Cooper why they didn't tell the authorities about the tape in 2002.

Current Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler said that the former Syracuse police chief, Dennis DuVal, was made aware of the allegations in 2002 when Bobby Davis told a Syracuse police detective.

Nov. 29, 2011: Laurie Fine's nephew, Matt Govendo, claimed that she would contest the integrity of the phone conversations. He said that Laurie would release a statement admitting that it is in fact her voice, but that some portions of the recording "are all tampered with." Laurie never issued a statement.

Syracuse beats Eastern Michigan in their first game since the firing of Bernie Fine. Jim Boeheim holds his first press conference since the departure of his longtime assistant.

Nov. 30, 2011: Mike Lang speaks with CNN to tell his story about his relationship with Bernie Fine. He said that he was watching the Penn State coverage when he decided to come forward.

UPDATE: A factual error in the 1990-1991 entry has been amended.

Before You Go

Bernie Fine - Ex-Syracuse Assistant Coach

Key Players In Syracuse Scandal

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