Bernie Fine Scandal: US Attorney, Secret Service to Lead Investigation

The allegations made against Bernie Fine are going to be investigated by the Secret Service under the direction of the US District Attorney.

Their involvement in the case was announced on Monday. This is not a big shock, as the Secret Service was involved in a search of Bernie Fine's home on Friday with the Syracuse and New York State Police.

That search lasted several hours and involved taking pictures, looking through trash and the removal of three filing cabinets.

On Monday, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick alerted the public of the involvement of the US Attorney. Fitzpatrick, as quoted by The Post-Standard: 

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I've been in close contact with the U.S. Attorney. All of last week, we discussed the case. The lead agency in investigating is the Secret Service under the direction of the U.S. Attorney's Office, assisted by the Syracuse Police Department.

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The investigation will focus on finding out if Fine can be prosecuted.

"The U.S. Attorney is, as I am," Fitzpatrick added, "interested in finding out if there are any prosecutable victims."

Recent allegations by former Syracuse ball boy Bobby Davis were too long ago for Fine to be prosecuted under state law.

The involvement of the US Attorney is a wise move given the high-profile nature of this case and the fact that there is a reason to believe that Fitzpatrick and his office could have done more before things had escalated to this point.

Davis's former girlfriend, Danielle Roach, said in a sworn statement that she called Fitzpatrick's office multiple times on behalf of Davis. She alleged that she left messages stating that a basketball coach at Syracuse had sexually abused a friend of hers.

She added that the calls were not returned. Bernie Fine has not been charged with any crimes. He has been fired from his assistant coaching job at Syracuse.