Syracuse New York Police Failed To Investigate Sexual Abuse By University Coach

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK – The Syracuse police chief knew in 2002 that a former team ball boy had accused an assistant Syracuse University basketball coach of sexual abuse, but police never started an investigation or filed a report, authorities said on Tuesday.

Syracuse Chief of Police Frank Fowler released a timeline of the missteps in 2002 under his predecessor Chief Dennis DuVal, a former Syracuse basketball player from 1971-1974 who later played for two seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Bernie Fine, a longtime assistant to Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, was fired on Sunday after ESPN played on air the audio of what it said was a telephone call from Fine’s wife Laurie to an alleged victim confirming the abuse.

The school said Boeheim, who initially defended Fine but reversed himself and supported his firing, would speak publicly after a Tuesday evening home game against Eastern Michigan University.

When asked if the scandal would cost Boeheim his job, Chancellor Nancy Cantor gave him what appeared to be an informal vote of confidence on Tuesday, saying, “Coach Boeheim is our coach.”

Fine is the target of a grand jury investigation into accusations that he molested a former ball boy, Bobby Davis, 39, and at least one other boy, Davis’s stepbrother Mike Lang, 45, when they were juveniles.

Pittsburgh police said they would also investigate allegations from a third man, Zach Tomaselli, that Fine tried to fondle him in a hotel in 2002.

Fine has called the accusations against him “patently false in every aspect.”

Syracuse Police formally launched an investigation of Fine on November 17 — nine years after his alleged victim first spoke with them by phone, Fowler said in the statement.

Davis was in Utah when he telephoned Detective Doug Fox in 2002 and told him about the sexual abuse.

The detective relayed the allegations to both his supervisor in the Abused Persons Unit and Chief DuVal,

STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS

The detective told Davis the statute of limitations had run out so authorities could not make an arrest, but he urged him to turn over additional information about other victims.

“It was decided that unless the victim met with the detective or the victim was able to provide names of other victims, then an investigation would not be initiated,” Fowler said in a statement.

Those conditions were not met so an investigation was never initiated and a report never created.

“I was not the chief in 2002 and I cannot change the procedures in place at that time,” Fowler said in a statement. He said that moving forward, all reports of sexual abuse, including those made over the phone, would be formally documented.

“The investigation is active and ongoing and has entered a new phase with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Secret Service taking the lead,” Fowler said in the statement.

Calls to former police chief DuVal were not returned. No one answered the door at DuVal’s house in Syracuse.

Fowler said it was not until earlier this month that police learned of several key developments, which caused them to launch their investigation.

“On November 17, 2011… two victims came to the Syracuse Police Department, along with new evidence,” Fowler said.

On that day, police also learned for the first time that Syracuse University had investigated and dismissed the allegations for lack of corroboration in 2005.

Syracuse is the third major university to disclose abuse allegations after Penn State University, where a former assistant football coach faces 40 sexual abuse charges, and South Carolina military college The Citadel, where a former student was arrested on accusations of molesting boys.

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Eugene Oregon Police Fell For Fake Anonymous 911 Call, Sent SWAT Team To Innocent Victim’s Home To Find Murder-Suicide Crime Scene

EUGENE, OREGON – Eugene police said they had no choice Monday night but to take seriously a 911 caller’s startling claim that he had just shot his father inside a River Road area apartment and was about to kill himself.

“It sounded like a critical call,” police spokeswoman Melinda McLaughlin said.

Fourteen police officers arrived at the Riviera Village complex on Corliss Lane in response to the 9:23 p.m. emergency call.

They left the scene after determining that the report suggesting a potential murder-suicide had occurred was bogus, McLaughlin said.

Investigators suspect the 911 caller obtained the name, address and telephone number of a man who lived at the apartment, then used that information to retaliate against the tenant after the pair squabbled while playing an online game on their Xbox video systems, McLaughlin said.

The apartment resident — a 26-year-old man who spoke with The Register-Guard on condition of anonymity — said he was targeted because he refused to give another player content that he had created for a game called FortressCraft.

“He tried to twist my arm over something relatively small in the game,” the Eugene man said.

For the past several years, cybercriminals have settled scores with foes by “swatting” — the name given to a telephone scheme that involves calling 911 to fake an emergency that could draw a police SWAT team response.

Swatters often manipulate computer and phone equipment to make it appear that a fake emergency call is coming from a victim’s home or business. That’s basically what led to Monday night’s police response to Riveria Village, McLaughlin said.

Police consider the 26-year-old apartment tenant a crime victim. But investigators don’t know if they will be able to track down the person who made the 911 call, McLaughlin said.

“We can’t tell where the call originated,” she said.

The victim said he thinks more than one person was involved in the hoax, and has begun his own investigation to identify the people responsible. He said he hopes to share what he learns with police.

He said he’s not sure how his personal information was compromised in the first place — but said the person with whom he had sparred while playing FortressCraft had informed him previously that his name and address could be found online.

“He brought it to my attention, like ‘I have this information on you, and you should protect it,’ ” the victim recalled.

The man said he was pleased with the way police handled the situation on Monday night. He said he and his girlfriend were detained and handcuffed while officers — with guns drawn — searched their residence to make sure that no crime had occurred there.

It may have been a more intense experience, had the victim not found out before police arrived that officers were headed to his home.

The victim said he learned from a friend who phoned him immediately after hearing someone make the 911 call while the friend shared a “vocal chat room” with the culprit.

McLaughlin confirmed that police received a call while officers were en route to Riveria Village asserting that the initial report was a hoax.

The victim said that while he has some computer expertise, Monday was the first time he had ever heard the term “swatter” to describe someone who calls 911 to falsely report an emergency at another person’s home.

“I am really good with computers, but I had no idea this could happen,” he said, adding that since Monday night, his e-mail and online video accounts appear to have been hacked.

“I really messed with the wrong guy,” he said.

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TSA Can’t Manage To Remove American Children And Lawmakers From Its Error Filled “No Fly List” But Thinks It Can Keep Its Employees Off “Controversial” Web Sites While At Work

WASHINGTON, DC – The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency’s computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a “controversial opinion,” according to an internal email obtained by CBS News.

The email was sent to all TSA employees from the Office of Information Technology on Friday afternoon.

It states that as of July 1, TSA employees will no longer be allowed to access five categories of websites that have been deemed “inappropriate for government access.”

The categories include:

? Chat/Messaging

? Controversial opinion

? Criminal activity

? Extreme violence (including cartoon violence) and gruesome content

? Gaming

The email does not specify how the TSA will determine if a website expresses a “controversial opinion.”

There is also no explanation as to why controversial opinions are being blocked, although the email stated that some of the restricted websites violate the Employee Responsibilities and Conduct policy.

The TSA did not return calls seeking comment by publication time.

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