By Michael McAllister
On Friday, Bernie Fine's third accuser, Zach Tomaselli, admitted to fabricating his allegations of sexual abuse. But that was not the most interesting thing that came out. Tomaselli also indicated that the reason he was able to get away with the lie for so long was because Bobby Davis (Fine's original accuser) coached him.
Bobby Davis came out almost immediately and denied those claims in an interview with Mark Schwarz. Davis told Schwarz, "I never said anything like that at all to the kid. I just spoke to him a couple minutes. There were like two phone calls between us and they lasted a total of three to four minutes. It was very short. I asked him all the questions. I asked him to describe Bernie's house, to describe the arena, to name the players on the team at that time. He kept changing his story with me. He couldn't name the players, couldn't describe the house."
By Bobby Davis' own admission, they spoke a couple of times. That we can take as a fact. His statements also suggest that he did not believe Tomaselli was being truthful in his accusations. As Davis indicates, Tomaselli couldn't describe Fine's house. That's the key to this. The last part of Davis' quote; that Tomaselli couldn't describe the house to him. So if Tomaselli could not describe Fine's home to Davis, how could he have done so to the police?
Remember, according to Tomaselli, he spoke to the authorities about his allegations. He indicated that in order to be believed by the authorities, he had to describe Fine's home. That description is what made authorities take his story as credible, which in part led to the warrant to search through Fine's home and office. If Tomaselli was able to describe Fine's home accurately to authorities, how could he have gone from unable to describe it to the point where authorities are granting warrants based on his description?
The answer is simple, someone must have given him information on the Fine home. Who could that have been? Tomaselli claims he never met Bernie Fine, nor was in his home. The only possibilities then are Mark Schwarz, Syracuse police, and Bobby Davis. The Syracuse police can be eliminated. What possible reason could they have for conspiring with Tomaselli? That explanation seems extremely far-fetched, and just not reasonable. That leaves Schwarz and Davis. As poorly as Schwarz has covered this story (and yes he put Davis and Tomaselli in touch with each other), it would not have been reasonable for him to describe Fine's home to Tomaselli. The reason being, he would have heard it from Davis not experienced it directly. It's similar to hearing from a friend of a friend. Things get lost in translation that way. That's not to say it isn't possible. Simply that in order for things to be as accurate as they must have been in order for authorities to move forward, Schwarz doesn't seem like a prime candidate.
The most logical scenario then is that Davis was the one who gave the information about Fine's home to Tomaselli. This is easily proven. The investigators have records of conversations with Tomaselli and his testimony. They can take a look at his description of the Fine home, compare it to Davis' description, and draw conclusions from there.
If Tomaselli was able to accurately describe Fine's home to authorities, how could he have done so if he was unable to do so to Bobby Davis? That may be a question Davis is answering in the near future.
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