By John O'Brien and Emily Kulkus
The Post-Standard
November 23, 2011
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/11/syracuse_authorities_ignored_s.html
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| File photos / The Post-Standard |
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| Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick and First Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Trunfio in a 2003 file photo. |
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Former Syracuse University ball boy Bobby Davis went to Syracuse police in 2002 with child-molesting allegations against associate head basketball coach Bernie Fine.
Davis talked to a detective for about five minutes and provided the names of other possible victims, he said. He heard nothing from police for nine years.
His former girlfriend says she tried to take Davis's allegations to the Onondaga County District Attorney's Office that same year. Prosecutors never returned her phone calls, she says.
The inaction of police and prosecutors nearly a decade ago was revealed Tuesday in a sworn statement Syracuse police took from the ex-girlfriend, Danielle Roach.
Neither the police department nor the DA's office investigated the allegations until this month, when Roach went back to police in light of the child-molesting scandal at Penn State, she said Tuesday in an interview. Syracuse police and the district attorney's office have opened investigations into the allegations. SU placed Fine on administrative leave after Davis' allegations were aired Thursday on ESPN.
Fine denies the allegations.
District Attorney William Fitzpatrick criticized Syracuse police last week for never informing his office about the allegations in 2002. He said he did not recall ever hearing about Davis's allegations until they were aired on ESPN.
The case has turned into a public feud between police and prosecutors. Fitzpatrick took the police department to court Tuesday to try to get the department to comply with a subpoena to turn over to his office all current and previous records relating to the allegations against Fine. The case was postponed until next week.
Roach told The Post-Standard that she doesn't hold a grudge against police and prosecutors for their inaction nine years ago. "If it wasn't handled properly, that's not anything we can change today," Roach said. The interactions that she and Davis have had with police and prosecutors recently have been great, she said.
Roach told police this week that she contacted Syracuse police detective Doug Fox in the abused persons unit in 2002 and told him that Fine had sexually abused her friend for years. She'd gotten the detective's name from a lawyer she knew.
Davis told The Post-Standard in 2002 that he'd talked over the phone to Fox about the alleged abuse in May or June of that year, when he was 30 years old. The phone call lasted three to five minutes, Davis said. He told Fox he'd been sexually abused by someone who worked at Syracuse University, Davis said.
"He said, 'When did this happen to you?'" Davis recalled in a 2002 interview. "I said, 'A long time ago.' (Fox) said, 'We really can't do anything for you...you're too old now.'"
Davis said he never identified Fine as the abuser in his conversation with Fox, and that Fox never asked for a name. He said he didn't recall Fox ever saying Fine's name either. "I said, 'Do you know anything about this?' (Fox) goes, 'Go on, I have a pretty good idea who you are talking about,'" Davis said. "I said, 'Do you know who I'm talking about?' He said, 'I kind of have a good idea.'"
In November 2002, police spokesman Sgt. Thomas Connellan told The Post-Standard that the police department had never opened an investigation of Fine. Connellan would not comment then on whether Davis had called police and made an allegation that he was a victim of sexual abuse. "We don't have an investigation, nor did we ever have an investigation," Connellan said then.
After Fox told Davis the case was too old, Roach decided to seek help from the district attorney's office, her statement said.
"After that, I felt we needed to try again," she said in the statement. "I called (First Chief Assistant District Attorney) Rick Trunfio and left multiple messages but never got a call back." In her messages to Trunfio, Roach said she had information that a basketball coach at SU had sexually abused a friend of hers, the statement said.
"I am not sure if I included the name of Bernie Fine in these messages or not," Roach's statement said. "I assumed that maybe since Det. Fox had already given us his answer, this was why I was not getting any return calls."
Roach said she'd gotten Trunfio's name from the head of the Rape Crisis Center, where she'd worked as a volunteer.
Trunfio, the second-in-command at the DA's office, did not return a phone message seeking his comment. Fitzpatrick said Tuesday he had not seen Roach's statement. His office has no record of her leaving phone messages for Trunfio, Fitzpatrick said.
It's "not possible" that Trunfio would've ignored a phone message alleging sexual misconduct involving anyone, Fitzpatrick said.
"There's not a chance in the world that Rick Trunfio wouldn't have returned that phone call," Fitzpatrick said. "He's famous for returning phone calls."
After learning of Roach's claim, Fitzpatrick spoke to someone "very, very close" to Roach who asked her about the phone messages she'd left in 2002. Roach told that person, whom Fitzpatrick would not identify, that she tried twice to reach Trunfio. The first time, Roach didn't leave her name or phone number or say why she was calling, Fitzpatrick said. The second message she left did not include Fine's name or anything about sexual abuse, Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick questioned the motives of Syracuse police including in Roach's statement information about Trunfio not returning her calls. The issue is irrelevant, Fitzpatrick said.
"I spent my day trying to find out whether or not the allegations are true," he said. The police department is "apparently spending their time trying to cover their asses."
Davis said he called the police while he was living in Utah in the summer of 2002. He was driving when he made the call, he said. "I pulled over," Davis said. "I just said, 'I'm going to do this.' I was really nervous."
Police detectives who investigate child sexual abuse allegations are trained to get as much information as possible in their initial interviews with victims, said Joseph Pollini, a criminal justice professor at John Jay College and former lieutenant commander with the New York City police department.
Even if the allegations are beyond the statute of limitations, the information is important, Pollini said. "You'd want to know if it's still ongoing conduct, if there are any other victims," he said. "You'd want to know if he's now preying on other kids." It would be unusual for the detective to not ask for the alleged abuser's name or any of the details of the abuse, Pollini said.
It would also be unusual for a prosecutor to not respond to calls about child-molesting allegations, Pollini said. "I'm surprised they would just blow it off like that," he said. "If police didn't do anything, then most certainly it's incumbent on the prosecutors to do something."
Mayor Stephanie Miner issued a statement Tuesday, saying the public "deserves to know who was aware of these allegations in 2002, what was done in response and if any individual or entity acted inappropriately in responding to these allegations... It is critical that we assemble a complete picture of the facts from 2002 to the present and then turn that information over to the appropriate authorities. Only then will we be able to fully answer the many outstanding questions related to this case, including who knew what and when."
Davis, in his 2002 interview with The Post-Standard, said Fox asked him if he knew of any minors who had been abused by the same man. Davis said he told Fox he didn't know for sure if the abuser had molested anyone else. But Davis said he provided the detective with the names of some youths who were friends of Fine's sons and who hung around Fine's house.
Davis said he told Fox that Fine was exhibiting some of the same behaviors that he had with Davis: Demanding to see the children's report cards and grabbing their legs.
"I said, 'No, I don't know anything for sure. I just see symptoms that something might be happening,'" Davis told Fox. Davis said the detective told him to call back if he ever knew for sure.
Fox could not be reached for comment.
Roach, of Camillus, was the person who first encouraged Davis to go to police in 2002. Syracuse police interviewed Roach twice Thursday — once by herself and later with Davis, she said in an interview Tuesday.
"I'd like to see the police department and the DA's office, and anyone else involved, work together to get to the truth," Roach said.
Contact: jobrien@syracuse.com
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