Lawyer Gloria Allred Slams Commission Report on Syracuse University Sex Abuse Case
ByLawyer Gloria Allred, who is representing a man accusing a former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach of sexual abuse, has thrashed the report commissioned by the university's board of trustees claiming it as "a complete whitewash," reports the Associated Press.
Victim Bobby Davis, a former university ball boy, had alleged sexual abuse by the former assistant coach of the basket ball team Bernie Fine since he was 12 years old.
Davis, now 40, made his first report to the police in 2002 after collecting phone call evidence in which Fine's wife had claimed that she had seen her husband molesting a boy in their house. But the police officials did not investigate in the matter, following which Davis approached the Syracuse University. A subsequent investigation by the university's officials found that Davis was lying.
In 2011, Davis' step-brother Mike Lang approached sports channel ESPN with similar accusations against Fine. Following the revelations by a second victim, the Syracuse University fired Fine and set up a special commission with the Syracuse board of trustees to investigate in the case.
The commission released its 52-page document last week concluding that the steps taken by the university were appropriate but not perfect. The commission stated that the university officials should have approached the police after learning about the case back in 2005, reported Reuters.
"At a minimum, making that report would have protected the University from criticism that it failed to contact law enforcement out of a desire to protect Bernie Fine or the Men's Basketball program," Reuters reported quoting commission's statement.
"If they turned out to be true, then the failure to have approached law enforcement at best exposed the University to harsh criticism, and at worst allowed a child molester to remain in place in the community without being called to account," the report said.
Lashing out at the commission's report, Allred said that the report does not condemn the Syracuse University for conducting a biased probe as their investigation was done by their longtime law firm.
"The issue should not have been whether or not the molestations were substantiated but rather whether or not they occurred," Associated Press quoted Allred as saying.
"Few cases of childhood sexual abuse can be 'substantiated' because by their very nature these events occur in private under circumstances where there cannot be substantiation, often because the victims are afraid or ashamed to speak out until years after the fact," she added.
Allred also mentioned that the report did not point out the fault by university staffs who were interviewed during the probe in 2005 that they failed to report the allegations to the board of trustees.