ESPN has asked a judge to toss out the lawsuit filed by Laurie Fine, claiming she’s changed her story so many times that the original complaints no longer stand.
Laurie Fine, the wife of former Syracuse University associate men’s basketball coach Bernie Fine, sued ESPN three years ago, claiming the network aired statements that were false and defamatory. One of the reports stated that Fine knew her husband was sexually abusing ball boys.
Bernie Fine was accused in 2011 by Bobby Davis and Mike Lang of molesting them while they were ball boys at SU. He was fired by the university but was never charged after a federal investigation.
ESPN also published recordings of a 2002 phone call between Laurie Fine and Davis, which she argued were doctored. Fine has since admitted that the tapes weren’t doctored, but argued that the conversation was about loaning money, not sex. She later said she was talking about sex with a 17-year-old.
The network claims Fine continues to “manufacture a ‘sham issue of fact’” in effort to avoid summary judgment by the court, according to a document filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.
In the phone call, Fine also mentioned she had suspicions that her husband was sexually abusing Davis as a child when he stayed in their DeWitt home. She now argues that she had those suspicions when Davis was 17, the age of consent in New York.
ESPN said there is no evidence she had those suspicions when Davis was a teenager, according to the lawsuit.
“That is patently insufficient to defeat a properly supported motion for summary judgment,” the document states.
The lawsuit also discounts Fine’s claims that she didn’t have sex with Davis when he was a teenager, saying she has no evidence supporting that assertion. In her original lawsuit against the network, Fine claimed ESPN’s coverage of these statements was libelous.
ESPN also argued the lawsuit should be dismissed because there was no actual malice in their reporting. In the document, the network contends that Fine changed her story on whether or not the network believed in the truth of their reporting.
In her sworn admission, she said she felt the network knew their reporting was true, whereas in her opposition to summary judgment, she said the network knew it was false.
The network also denied claims that they acted in a “grossly irresponsible” manner when reporting on the lawsuit filed against her husband. In her complaint, Fine argued that journalists should hold stories on a criminal matter to a particular standard during the reporting process, including discussions on whether or not to publish them.
“Indeed, if Mrs. Fine’s view of journalistic standards were to prevail here, countless Pulitzer Prizes awarded for exceptional reporting that uncovered criminal activity before any criminal charges had been filed, or even contemplated, would have to be returned,” the document states, later referring to The Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team and their coverage of sex abuse among clergy members.
ESPN also claims that the U.S. Secret Service, the Syracuse Police Department and District Attorney William Fitzpatrick reviewed the tape and came to the conclusion that Fine knew about Bernie Fine’s sex abuse of Davis as a child.