Bernie Fine Accuser Admits To Lying, Calls Him A “Fine Man”

Floyd VanHooser, a current prison inmate who claimed recently that former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine sexually abused him as a child now says he was lying about the accusation.

In a letter sent to the Post-Standard newspaper of Syracuse in December VanHooser said he was mad at Fine for not helping him hire a lawyer to fight his criminal conviction.

Fine was like a father figure to VanHooser, helping raise the young man after his parents died.

The accusation by Floyd came after two men last year accused Fine of abusing them in the 1980s, however the statute of limitations had expired on their cases. Following the accusations Bernie Fine was fired on Nov. 27 following more than 35 years as an assistant coach at Syracuse University.

Fine was never charged and denied any wrongdoing in the case and another accusation has turned up no proof of claim according to prosecutors.

VanHooser originally said the abuse started after Fine took him in when he was 14-years-old. He says the acts continued into adulthood and eventually included money in exchange for sexual favors.

In his letter to the Post-Standard he wrote:

”In a statement I gave, I told a lot of lies about Bernie Fine. None of what I said was true,” VanHooser wrote. ”Bernie has been nothing but good to me over the years. He was the only thing I had close to a father. He never did anything wrong. He is a good man.”

According to VanHooser he wanted “revenge” on Fine when he threw out his accusations and didn’t think “the story would go as far as it did.”

VanHooser specifically notes that he never saw Fine abusing children.

Here’s more information about the inmate from Newsy.com:

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