Bernie Fine Will Not Be Charged: Updates, Questions & Concerns

We know that Bernie Fine won’t be charged in the federal criminal investigation of child-molesting accusations brought against him. So what else do we know...

Bernie Fine's lawyer released the following statement:

"Although we are not surprised by the decision of United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York to close the investigation against Bernie Fine without any charges, we greatly appreciate his decision to publicly announce that decision."

"The damage inflicted upon Bernie and his family is simply immeasurable. Bernie deeply
appreciates the tremendous outpouring of support from friends, family and the community throughout this difficult time. Bernie hopes and prays that the lesson learned and remembered is that a rush to judgment has irreversible consequences."

Gloria Allred would also like to remind everyone that this decision doesn't necessarily mean Bernie Fine is innocent.

"The (Department of Justice's) decision does not indicate that there is or is not merit to the allegations against Mr. Fine and it does not vindicate him," Allred said in a statement. "To the contrary, many individuals in both in state and federal law enforcement have stated repeatedly that they believe Bobby Davis was credible when he reported his allegations of sexual abuse by Bernie Fine."

So Is Syracuse University going to be in trouble for firing Bernie Fine? Maybe? The University was quick to say that they still feel Fine's firing was"appropriate."

"The decision last November regarding Mr. Fine’s employment was the appropriate step to take and it was made in the best interest of the University," Kevin Quinn, SU's vice president for public affairs, said in an e-mail.

But was it? Basically, he was fired because of an allegation that has yet to be proven true. If someone made up an allegation about me and it got me fired from my job even if it wasn't true or proven true, I'd be pretty pissed off. Especially if that firing came in the middle of the firestorm.

A bunch of former players reacted publicly to the news of the investigation. John Wallace is "ecstatic and happy that he’s been cleared" while Howard Triche said "I think its great and (its) what I said all along."

A friend of Bernie's told the Post-Standard that Bernie always knew he'd be cleared of the allegations.

"He knew it was inevitable for it to end in a positive way for him," Vita said today, shortly after prosecutors announced their investigation was finished. "He knew he’d be cleared because obviously he knows he’s innocent."

"It doesn’t surprise me," said Hicker, who played basketball for SU in the 1960s when Fine was team manager. "The first time I heard about it I said, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely no way that Bernie Fine could do these kind of things."

How bout ESPN? How they taking the news? They devoted some time on OTL this morning to discussing the news, though I didn't see it. They recap the whole saga here but leave out the parts where they drove and manipulated the story to drive their pageviews and ratings.

Jason Whitlock, who was pretty much the only mainstream media personality to question the Fine allegations the entire time, is pleased.

And Sheila Fine, daughter of the Fines, summed up how the family feels when a reporter called for reaction:

"Nobody has s--- to say to you. How stupid do you feel now?"

We have yet to hear if Zach Tomaselli will make a statement before retracting that statement and then retracting his retraction.