Syracuse police: University didn't contact them when it heard of 2005 sex abuse accusations
11/18/2011SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse police spokesman Tom Connellan says Syracuse University did not contact police in 2005 when the school was informed of allegations of "inappropriate contact" by an associate men's basketball coach.
The school placed longtime assistant coach Bernie Fine on administrative leave Thursday night after old child molestation allegations resurfaced just two weeks after the Penn State scandal.
ESPN said the accusations were made by two former ball boys.
In an email Friday morning to students, faculty and staff, Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor repeated that the school was contacted in 2005 by "an adult male who asserted that he had reported allegations in 2005 of abuse in the 1980's and 1990's to the police" and that the accuser told the school police had declined to pursue it because the statute of limitations had expired.
She says the school conducted its own four-month investigation at that time, including interviews with people the accuser said would support his allegations, but that all of them "denied any knowledge of wrongful conduct" by the associate coach.
In an email to The Associated Press, Kevin Quinn, the school's senior vice president for public affairs, says that when the school learned of the allegations in 2005, "it had already been reported to the Syracuse City Police and was already addressed within the criminal justice process."