Floyd VanHooser, a career criminal who is currently serving a 16 years to life sentence for burglary, told the Syracuse Post-Standard that former Orange assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine sexually molested him at the age of 14.
From the Post-Standard report:
“Fine first forced VanHooser to masturbate him when VanHooser was a young teenager, VanHooser said. That was before SU hired Fine as a coach. Fine was working as a Syracuse city school district basketball coach.
VanHooser said the sexual contact continued over four decades. VanHooser said he told Syracuse police about three incidents – in 1998, 2001 and 2011 – when Fine pressured him to perform oral sex and later gave VanHooser money.”
VanHooser becomes the fourth man to accuse Fine of sexually molesting them an early age.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick held a press conference last week to say that his office couldn’t prosecute the cases for the the two initial accusers—Bobby Davis and Michael Lang—because the statute of limitations had run.
Fitzpatrick also alluded to a potential fourth accuser that was a persistent felon and serving a life sentence, but didn’t disclose the name of the accuser. Fitzpatrick also said that the alleged fourth accuser wasn’t found to be credible.
The allegations of the first three accusers led to Fine’s dismissal as the Syracuse associate head basketball coach on Nov. 27. Fine was in his 36th season with SU.
No criminal charges have been filed against him. Previously, a statement issued by Fine called the allegations of the first two accusers “patently false.”