NEW YORK
New York Daily News
Imprisoned Bernie Fine accuser Floyd VanHooser says he made up sex abuse claims against ex-Syracuse assistant
By Michael O’keeffe / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The upstate prison inmate who accused Bernie Fine of sexual abuse said he lied to get back at the former Syracuse assistant basketball coach because Fine did not hire a lawyer for him when he was convicted on burglary charges last year.
Floyd (David) VanHooser, a career criminal and drug abuser who was sentenced in October to 16 years to life as a repeat offender, told the Syracuse Post-Standard on Friday that he lied about the abuse because he was angry at Fine, who took in VanHooser when he was orphaned as a teenager.
“Some of it is true and some of it isn’t,” VanHooser told the newspaper when asked if the allegations he made to investigators were true. “You’re going to tell everyone how sorry I am?”
VanHooser, 56, told Syracuse police detectives in late November that Fine began molesting him when he was 14 or 15 and that the sexual contact continued for four decades. The Daily News reported then that Robert Hoatson, founder of an organization that counsels sex-abuse victims called Road to Recovery, had talked to the family of a fourth victim who said Fine had abused him; VanHoover was that alleged victim. VanHooser told the Post-Standard and the Associated Press in interviews last month that Fine had abused him.
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