The other shoe? It has officially dropped.
Zach Tomaselli, who is himself facing sexual assault charges in Maine against a 14-year-old boy, has signed a sworn affidavit accusing Bernie Fine of molesting him in a Pittsburgh hotel the night before an Syracuse - Pitt game in 2002. Tomaselli was 13 at the time.
Tomaselli alleged in his statement that Fine invited him to a party at Fine’s DeWitt home in 2003 following another SU game, and it describes in detail the inside of Fine’s house at 7001 Tiffany Circle.
No one witnessed the alleged abuse by Fine, Tomaselli said, and he does not have any physical evidence to back up his allegations.
Tomaselli's accusations were what made it possible for authorities to get a search warrant to enter Fine's house, which they did on Friday.
As if this wasn't already weird enough, Fred Tomaselli, Tomaselli’s father, says that his son is lying and that Zach never went to Pittsburgh with the team in 2002 or ever went to Bernie Fine's house in 2003.
For anyone looking for clarity one way or another, all this does is raise more questions.
Much more damning, however, is a recorded phone call that ESPN has received from initial accuser Bobby Davis. The call features Fine's wife, Laurie, expressing concerns over her husband's actions.
"I know everything that went on, you know," Laurie Fine said on the call, obtained by Outside the Lines from Davis. "I know everything that went on with him ... Bernie has issues, maybe that he's not aware of, but he has issues ... And you trusted somebody you shouldn't have trusted ... "
She continued: "Bernie is also in denial. I think that he did the things he did, but he's somehow through his own mental telepathy has erased them out of his mind."
There's a lot more on the recording and it's pretty bad. Not sure how you can walk away from it thinking anything other than the worst.
And that's before you get to the part where Davis tells ESPN and he and Laurie Fine has an affair:
Later, Laurie Fine admitted to having a relationship with Davis. In the interview with ESPN, Davis said that occurred when he was 18 and a senior in high school. Davis said he told Bernie Fine about it, but Fine seemed unaffected. "I thought he was gonna kill me, but I had to tell him," Davis said in the interview with ESPN. "I felt so bad. I told him about it what was going on with me and Laurie and it didn't faze him one bit honestly."
Aaaand this is officially insane. Not that it wasn't before, but...it's at least official now.
Oh by the way, William Fitzpatrick is a clown, according to experts. So there's that too. But that's the least of our concerns at the moment...