Bernie Fine Accusations: Zach Tomaselli Changed Initial Story, According To Fitzpatrick
by Sean Keeley on Jan 20, 2012 9:00 AM EST
in Syracuse Basketball
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PrintSurprisingly, one of the most interesting characters to emerge from the whole Bernie Fine mess has been Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick.
His initial outburst over lack of knowledge regarding Bobby Davis' original claims to Syracuse police, which included calling Syracuse a "fiefdom," is the stuff of legend. His showdown with the mayor and SPD pulled focus off the accusations and turned it into a turf war. He begrudgingly turned things over to the feds but kept talking. Despite it no longer being his case, he made comments about Zach Tomaselli, calling him "dubious," and claimed "there is no fourth accuser" even as a fourth accuser stepped forward. And then he was proven right when the fourth accuser admitted to making it all up.
Now he's parlayed all of this into a new segment on CNYCentral called Inside Justice with Bill Fitzpatrick. And he dropped a new bombshell on the Bernie Fine accusations.
One of Bernie Fine’s accusers initially told Syracuse police the former Syracuse University coach molested him in early 2002 while he was attending an away game against the University of Connecticut, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said today.
But Fitzpatrick said that after law enforcement authorities discovered that SU never played UConn during the 2001-02 season, Zach Tomaselli changed his story.
Of course, Tomaselli's story was already questionable given that he tweaked his bus story three times as well. Tomaselli claims that he was initially unsure which school he followed the team to but was reminded by a friend that it was Pittsburgh, not Connecticut.
"I was 13 at the time. I had been in the northeast less than three or four months. That was not something I remembered, the specific city. I did once I thought about it," Tomaselli said. "The minute I actually thought about it I knew it was Pittsburgh. One hundred percent."
Minutes later, Tomaselli said, "I don’t think I ever told the police it was in Connecticut. I’m 90 percent sure I did not even tell Connecticut to a police dispatcher. That 10 percent, I might have said it was a rivalry game, possibly Connecticut."
Tomaselli is currently suing Bernie Fine in a civil suit in Allegheny County Court. Hopefully Tomaselli's lawyer has figured out which hotel Zach stayed in by now.
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If I hadn't heard that yesterday
Now he’s parlayed all of this into a new segment on CNYCentral called Inside Justice with Bill Fitzpatrick.
I would have thought this was a really funny fake segment you made up, Sean. It sounds like something from Parks and Rec. “Ya’ Heard with Perd.”
http://cusepulp.blogspot.com/
More more
The lack of credibility among the accusers combined with the lack of any real evidence other than the phone call (which was mighty short on specifics) makes this look less like Bernie was abusing kids like Sandusky was. Essentially, it’s only Davis at this point whose story doesn’t have serious problems. Then again, Davis says that it started when he was 13-14 (could that number have been tweaked from 16-17?) and he first met Bernie 3-4 different ways. Bernie probably wanted as normal a life as possible and in trying to do so without giving up his secret, he made some bad choices. He couldn’t exactly be seen with a same sex partner so he married a woman. He was limited in opportunities for finding partners so he hooked up the only other men he could. I still maintain that it’s a shakedown combined with something that initially started as statutory rape.
Doesn’t make what he did right, or legal in any sense of the word. But it’s far from the massive conspiracy and child sex ring that was PSU – no matter how hard ESPN tried to paint it as such.
I've been involved in a number of cults, both as a leader and a follower. You have more fun as a follower. But you make more money as a leader.
Hmmmm....
I always get the City of Pittsburgh confused with the State of Connecticut. At least he didn’t suggest it happened in Toronto. You know how Customs can be confused with leaving the Thruway.
Also, why wouldn’t someone “think about it” before heading to the police? That would probably be one of the main things to consider. The police will probably ask, you know, WHERE THE ABUSE HAPPENED. Perhaps even first question.
I am not sure what happened with Davis and Lang, but at this pace Bernie will be rejoining the team by Valentine’s Day…
http://atlanticcoastconfidential.com/
Don't think Bernie will ever be rejoining the team but it is interesting how there is still a chair,usually the one JB sits in, that has a white strip on the back cushion.
I have a feeling a lot of folks(ie,coaches/friends/fans) still don’t believe ANY of these claims. Can’t say as though I am convinced of anything. Will be interesting to see what/if anything, the feds find.
What's most irritating to me
is that when these accusers were stepping forward, Mark Schwarz was more than happy to give his opinion to ESPN at the top of every hour. ESPN loved running the story on the bottom ticker all day even though there was no evidence or proof. Now that news comes out that pokes holes in yet another accusers story, it’s nowhere to be found. This is pretty big news if you ask me. Why isn’t Schwarz standing outside the Carrier Dome? Why isn’t ESPN reporting on any of this?
Yeah, Schwarz should be involved with this news as it was widely reported that he put Tomaselli in touch with Davis.
Ya know just to make sure that Ol Zach noticed the pool in the back yard, joke.
I saw Schwarz was in South Beach covering LeBron last night
He couldn’t get his mug on ESPN and CNN fast enough when these guys alleged things, but now that it’s falling apart he’s ignoring it and laughing about ESPN’s other cash cow, LeChoke Shame, down in Miami. Laughing all the way to the bank. I seriously had to restrain myself from chucking the remote right into his face on my TV every time that douche fuck (sorry Sean) would start smirking.
All I want is fair journalism
if you’re going to report every accusation and air every interview that goes against Bernie then do the same when something comes out that helps prove his innocence. I’m not claiming he’s innocent or guilty (I have no idea), but it’s disgusting how one-sided the reporting has been.
Good grief.
When ESPN reported the 4th accuser recanting, some suggested that the report was made to increase ESPN ratings/viewership of its prior work. If ESPN does not report the bad news, they are hiding something. Which is it?
This has all played out very well for Syracuse. If JB had just kept quiet, this thing would have been a very quick non-story.
http://atlanticcoastconfidential.com/
I'm not saying they didn't report about the 4th accuser
I’m saying how they reported that story was bullshit compared to how they reported it when the accusers were stepping forward. They had the recanting of the fourth accuser story at the top of the NCAA BB page on ESPN.com and they had it on the front page under headlines for a few hours, but that’s all I heard of it. No BREAKING NEWS segments, no interview from Schwarz, no break down of the case every hour on ESPN. It’s clearly been one-sided reporting.
And for anyone that claims the fourth accuser recanting was some ploy by ESPN to increase ratings is just a troll.
They did cover it on ESPN.com
I think it was front page. But I completely agree with you when it comes to the dramatic reporting by Schwarz.
Sean was the first one to say it
Pretty sure he is not a troll
http://atlanticcoastconfidential.com/
We already know Schwarz wasn't going for fair journalism
He has admitted he 100% believed Davis all along. He has always been firmly invested in the accusations being true. I mean, the guy FREAKING PUT THE ACCUSERS IN CONTACT WITH ONE ANOTHER! There has never been any concern about balance in the journalism. I was listening to Dan Patrick on the way back up here the other night, can’t remember what coverage of theirs he was referencing (I think Tebow), and he just kept saying how they need to admit they aren’t in the journalism field at all. All of their former “big names” are embarrassed at what ESPN has become. They need to just admit they aren’t in journalism anymore, only entertainment. And that’s fine- TMZ still gets plenty of viewers. At least they don’t lie about what they do.
A reason why I really like Dan Patrick
is because he’s able to bring to light a lot of problems with ESPN and isn’t afraid to do so. I wish there were more radio shows like his.
You won't get a report
You’ll get an arrest, or you won’t. You may get something saying that the investigation has closed.
Yep!
My guess (from what I’ve heard from SPD), Saratoga, is that we won’t have any idea what the Feds have found or will do until as late as August.
Born in '87, Orange fan since '86
I guess I made a twitter, follow @StealthTurkey
by StealthTurkey on Jan 20, 2012 11:13 AM EST up reply actions
Good points
It is interesting that ESPN and the P-S hasn’t come back to summarize things since early December (when they searched the Melo Center). No statements how we are back to the original accusers and the ESPN story really only created false prophets.
The fact the feds haven’t done anything at least disproves a lot of the child porn and other rampant speculation. They could be building a case, but really, it is hard to believe. All they had was the Tomaselli accusations that still fit in federal SOL. That case is a disaster and there is probably no way a federal prosecutor stakes their reputation on that. So, if they didn’t get anything else during the search warrants, it looks like this case may just die that quiet death with the standard ’our investigation is ongoing" forever and indefinitely.
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