Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Well looks like the only shot is the feds, make it count!

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7326350/bernie-fine-face-state-charges-abuse-investigation-former-syracuse-orange-assistant


Another day another break for Ex-Syracuse assistant coach Bernie Fine. After decades of abuse was alleged by two men who were connected to Syracuse through the basketball program there have been many others come forward but it may be too little too late for most if not all of the cases. 


The statute of limitations has run out according to county district attorney William Fitzpatrick who had been overseeing the investigation for the case in Onondaga County. Fitzpatrick says that although he believes he has two credible witnesses and the charges are warranted he will not be able to prosecute due to the lapse in time between the accusers first reporting the alleged abuse and a more thorough investigation being completed. In addition, it took the accusers years to build up the courage to finally come forward and feel comfortable enough to speak up, the longer the wait, the harder it is to get a conviction typically. This is because of factors such as witnesses memory possibly remembering all of the details , evidence handling, movement of witnesses ect. Many different things are in play because there are so many different moving parts in a case of he said, he said.


The third complaint of sexual abuse comes from Zach Tomaselli of Lewiston, ME. Because his case falls within the federal statute of limitations it is being investigated by the secret service and is still ongoing. Hopefully, the other young men who suffered at the hands of Fine's perversions can take at least a little satisfaction in knowing that he is going to pay for one of his crimes. 


The cival cases are seperate though and have nothing to do with this finding, which is a relief for many of the victims most likely due to the high expense of after-care of such a tramatic event. Whether it was one day over an hour of terror or a yearlong torture chamber, these kids(now young men) are going to need to get help to deal with all of the emotions surrounding this. Some may have burried all of the memories of pain, sadness, fear over the last few years and hearing about it day after day will take its toll. I wish all of them the best of luck and hope everyone all over the world feels the same way. In the future I just really hope we can start to see what is going wrong at so many different schools all over the country and FIX IT. LET'S DO SOMETHING, I DON'T WANT TO JUST KEEP READING ABOUT EVERYTHING WRONG WITH ALL OF THESE SCHOOLS, I WANT TO HEAR WHAT THEY ARE CHANGING SO IT NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN TO ANOTHER KID!

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